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I must leave it all — must leave 
Oh, so soon ! God ! ” 


“ Mine — mine . . . and 
it all — soon ! 


[Page 7.) 





The Lake Mystery 


BY 

MARVIN DANA v 

Author of 

The Woman of Orchids, A Puritan Witch, 
Within the Law, etc. 


FRONTISPIECE BY 

J. ALLEN ST. JOHN 



CHICAGO 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. 


1923 






Copyright 

Marvin Dana 
1922-1923 

Published September, 1923 
Copyrighted in Great Britain 


« 



Printed in the United States of America 


SEP 29 1923 

a. 

C1A76026 4 \ 

‘T# ^ ' 




CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

Prologue . 1 

I Adventurers’ Pact. 15 

II The Secretary. 28 

III The Assembling. 38 

IV Eve of Battle. 48 

V The Search Begins. 62 

VI The Sixth Sense. 79 

VII Haphazard Questing. 94 

VIII In the Recess. 108 

IX The Gold Song. 121 

X In the Wood. 131 

XI The Shot. 147 

XII The Secret Vault. 166 

XIII The Clue. 177 

XIV The Episode of the Launch. 195 

XV The Chart. 203 

XVI The Hold . 219 

XVII Masters Again. 230 

XVIII Dux Facti Femina. 239 

XIX In the Cavern. 257 

XX The Event of a Night. 268 

XXI The First Pit. 288 

XXII The Other Passage. 303 

XXIII The Blast . 318 

XXIV Entombed. 332 

XXV To the Chimney. 345 

XXVI In the Dark. 359 











































THE LAKE MYSTERY 

PROLOGUE 

THE MISER 

T HE Dresden clock on the mantel struck 
twelve in soft, slow, golden notes. As the 
gentle echoes died away, Horace Abernethey, 
sitting huddled in a morris chair before the 
fire of logs, stirred feebly. Presently, he sat 
erect, moving clumsily, with the laboriousness 
of senility. But there was nothing of the aged 
in the glances of his keen, dark eyes, which 
shone forth brightly from out the pallid parch¬ 
ment of his face. His intent gaze darted first 
toward the clock, to verify the hour of which 
the gong had given warning; it went next to 
the closed window on the right of the fireplace, 
over which the shades had not been drawn. 
The unsheltered panes were spangled with 
raindrops, and, as he watched, a new gust beat 
its tattoo on the glass. The old man drew 
down the tip of his thin, beaklike nose in a 

1 


2 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


curious movement of disgust, then stroked pet¬ 
ulantly the white cascade of beard that flowed 
to his bosom. 

“Curse such weather!” He snarled, in a 
voice querulous and shrill with years. He 
stood up with sudden alertness, surprising 
after his first awkward slowness; a brisk 
gesture of the head threw back from his face 
the luxuriant white curls of hair. “But, in 
spite of it, I must go again, and so make an 
end of the job—$lse—death might take me 
unawares.” 

Abernethey glanced aimlessly about the 
long, low-ceiled room, now lighted only by the 
glow from the fire. After a little, he advanced 
to the center, where a concert-grand piano 
dominated the scene. In a moment more, he 
had lighted the tall lamp that stood at hand. 
A sheet of music in manuscript was lying on 
the rack. He seized this, and scanned it 
eagerly, muttering the while. 

“Curious it should work out so,” he 
exclaimed, at last; “curious, and infernally 
clever, too!” He seated himself before the 
instrument, still holding communion with his 
thoughts. “Yes, it will do—capitally—and it 





PROLOGUE 


3 


has the spirit of the thing. It chants the 
curse.” 

Suddenly, as he ceased speaking, the old 
man lifted his arms in a quick, graceful move' 
ment. The long, clawlike fingers, supple still, 
fell vehemently on the keys, in a clamor of 
melancholy music. There was only a single 
strain of melody—that written on the page 
before him; but he played it again and again, 
as if obsessed by its weird rhythm, played it 
blatantly, tenderly, with reluctant slowness, 
with masterful swiftness. And, as he went 
on and on, he abandoned the simplicity of the 
written score. In its stead, he multiplied har¬ 
monies, superimposed innumerable variations. 
The musical rapture revealed the decrepit old 
man as a virtuoso. The treatment of the 
theme showed him to be at once the scholar 
and the creature of vivid emotional imagina¬ 
tion, while the physical interpretation of the 
dreaming that drove him on displayed a tech¬ 
nique astonishing in one so burdened with 
years. 

But ever, throughout the wildest extrava¬ 
gances of his fancy’s flight, there was no 
failure of that first morbid rhythm, of that first 




4 THE LAKE MYSTERY 

monotonous melody in minor set on the sheet 
before him. 

This was the score on which he built the 
ordered sequence of his improvisations: 


Larg^o 


-rCf-n -N ■ -T^V-- 

- h -4)-:- 

-JLV. V ml _V 

LI mi I 

ini_£1_^ _u_ l\ _r__ m _*_ r _ : n 

^ ^ .=a 






r\ 




4 


r 






w 


M 






dES 


The player ended with a harsh clangor 
from the keys, and whirled about on the stool 


















































































PROLOGUE 


5 


to stare intently toward the wall opposite the 
fireplace. Now, his pallid face in the glimpse 
that showed above the beard, was faintly 
flushed from the bodily strain of playing. But 
the fire burning in the dark eyes proved that 
the emotion within still maintained its vigor 
undiminished. Springing up, he drew his tall, 
thin form to its full height, and stood thus 
motionless for a long minute, gazing fixedly 
at the wall before him. Then, again with the 
swift movement of the head by which the 
white curls were thrown back from his brow, 
he strode forward, and came to a stand facing 
the naked wainscoting of the wall. 

In the long, barren room, devoid of other 
ornament, this paneling was of itself sufficient 
to command attention. Beyond a few scat¬ 
tered chairs, a solitary table with its lamp, 
the irons of the fireplace, a cabinet for music, 
the piano and the high lamp standing beside 
it, there was nothing in the place, not even 
so much as draperies to mask the ugliness of 
the window-shades. Such scarcity of furnish¬ 
ing was emphasized by the size of the 
apartment, which was fifty feet in length and 
half as wide. Doubtless, the occupant had 





6 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


preferred the space thus free from aught that 
might in any wise hamper the resonance of 
the music. Be that as it may, the ornateness 
of the wainscoting was made conspicuous, 
since only the piano offered another interest. 
Of black walnut, it ran to a height of at least 
seven feet out of the ten that measured the 
wall, and, extending around the four sides of 
the room, gave to the aspect of the place a 
quality of melancholy so extreme as to be 
almost funereal—an effect in no way lessened 
on closer observation, since the deep carving 
was merely a conventional labyrinth of 
scrolls. 

The manner in which Abernethey scanned 
the wall opposite him was too intent to be 
explained by any ordinary concern with wood¬ 
work long familiar. Moreover, his eyes were 
glowing fiercely; the talonlike fingers writhed 
curiously where they hung at his sides; the 
shaggy white brows were drawn low; from 
time to time, the tip of the thin nose was 
thrust downward in the movement peculiar to 
him. It was plain that he was in the grip of 
profound feeling, though he stood mute 
before a stark space of wall. 




PROLOGUE 


7 


The old man bestirred himself abruptly. 
His right arm was raised with swift grace; 
the dexterous fingers played for a moment 
silently, yet firmly, on the crowded traceries 
of the carving. A flurry of wind brought the 
rain clattering noisily against the window- 
panes, but the musician gave no heed; the 
clock rang softly from a single stroke of the 
gong, but his ears had no care for the hour. 
He was muttering to himself now, brokenly, 
despairingly, the while his fingers wandered 
over the intricate design of the paneling: 

“Mine—mine .... and I must leave it all 
—must leave it all—soon! Oh, so soon! God! 
The torture of it ... . mine—all mine! Ah!” 

Without warning sound the panel on which 
his hand rested had swung outward, until it 
stood like a door, wide-open. An ejaculation 
of eagerness burst from Abernethey’s lips, as 
he peered within the opening thus revealed 
through the wall. A large plate of polished 
steel glimmered in the dim light that came 
from the lamp beside the piano. A figured 
knob in the center of this plate proclaimed 
the fact that here was a cunningly contrived 
safety-vault. 









8 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


The old man’s arm again reached forth 
with that astonishing quickness which char¬ 
acterized his every movement. Now, the 
agile fingers seized the knob of the safe door, 
twirling it with practised certainty of touch. 
Presently, the methodical adjustment com¬ 
plete, he tugged briskly on the knob, and the 
door swung outward. An exclamation of 
delight burst from Abernethey’s lips; his form 
grew suddenly tense. With febrile haste, he 
put both hands to the lighter inner doors, and 
pulled them open. A small electric torch lay 
ready to hand just within, on which he seized. 
Immediately, its soft radiance revealed the 
whole interior of the recess. 

The space was well filled with canvas bags, 
of the sort commonly used to contain specie. 
Their appearance there, thus hidden and pro¬ 
tected, left no doubt of the fact that they 
were the old man’s chief treasure. For that 
matter, there was nothing else inside the 
vault, not even ledgers, or papers of any sort 
whatever. It was quite evident that Aber- 
nethey had no hesitation in trusting his other 
valuables to less-secret places of security. 
Here, he concealed with such elaborate pre- 




PROLOGUE 


9 


caution only actual coin. And now, secure 
from all observation at midnight in this 
remote region, where the isolation of time and 
place were intensified by the downpour of the 
tempest, the aged musician gave free rein to 
his consuming passion, stripped from his 
nature the last mask of hypocrisy, gloated and 
adored at beck of that devil who was his 
master. 

Abernethey nimbly caught up two of the 
bags, and bore them to the table that stood 
against the wall to the right of the vault, 
where he set them down with a softness of 
movement which was like a caress in its ten¬ 
derness. Then, he sank into a chair beside 
the table, and began untying the cord that 
held shut the mouth of one of the bags. It 
was only a matter of seconds until the sack 
gaped open—he paused now, to stare about 
the room with furtive, fearful eyes. His 
scrutiny was directed principally toward the 
windows: his lips were drawn in a snarl as he 
realized that the shades had not been pulled 
down. He sprang to his feet, and darted to 
the nearest, where he arranged the shade to 
his satisfaction, mumbling and mouthing the 




10 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


while. Afterward, he made a round of the 
room, very swiftly, yet using all care to 
render himself secure from observation by 
anyone without. A glance at the doors hav¬ 
ing shown him that all these were shut fast, 
he at last strode back to the table, where the 
money-bags awaited him. The chair was 
drawn close; into it, Abernethey sagged heav¬ 
ily, as if in sudden relaxation from the taut 
energy that had urged him on hitherto. For 
a half-minute, he sat crouched over the table 
in an attitude of utter weariness, almost of 
collapse. But abruptly, he aroused himself 
from the clutch of lethargy. Once again, he 
held himself upright; again, his eyes searched 
the room craftily, alight with emotional fires. 
Finally, his arms rose swiftly, swooped for¬ 
ward and downward, until the talonlike fin¬ 
gers closed on the bags, which he drew tight 
to his breast where it pressed against the 
table. In this posture, which was like an 
embrace, he remained moment after moment, 
tense, alert, movelessly alive in every fibre of 
him. Then, putting term to the rapturous 
pause the old man sighed faintly, as one who, 
with infinite reluctance, awakes from ecstasy. 




PROLOGUE 


11 


He sat rigid, and pushed the two bags a slight 
distance from the edge of the table. For 
another little interval, he stared at them, half- 
doubtfully, in the manner of one returning 
slowly to reality after the illusions of a 
dream. A second sigh was breathed from his 
lips, not blissful now, but weighted with bleak 
despair. Presently, he tossed his head impa¬ 
tiently, and began fumbling with the string of 
the second bag. This yielded speedily, as had 
that of the first. In another instant, he had 
poured forth the contents of the two sacks; 
on the table before him lay twin heaps of 
gold. 

Afterward, for more than an hour, the 
miser gave full play to his vice. Before the 
smoldering fires of the metal, he worshiped 
devoutly, abjectly. His soul prostrated itself 
in adoration beneath the golden glory that 
he so loved and reverenced. At times, he 
plunged his fingers within the heaps, listening 
raptly to the clinking song of the coins as 
they were moved haphazard by the contact; 
at times, he sat dumb, crooning softly, as if 
these bits of metal had been sentient tilings 
to hark to his hymn of praise. Other vag- 




12 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


aries were his, innumerable follies, nameless 
abasements before this, his most sacred 
shrine. 

Of a sudden, Abernethey sprang to his feet. 
Leaving the glittering piles on the table, he 
hurried to the piano, where he seated himself 
with face turned toward the altar of his wor¬ 
ship. The supple fingers touched the keys 
anew; the melancholy air which he had played 
before sounded once again. But now, it was 
rendered simply, without extremes of emotion 
on the part of its interpreter, without variar 
tions in its harmonic forms. Instead, the old 
man played it slowly and gently throughout, 
repeating it monotonously many times. The 
morbid rhythm stood forth ghastly in its naked, 
sordid truth. It came as a hopeless confession 
of despair, the ultimate fact in the vice that 
was his master. 

Abernethey went back to the table, stacked 
coins until he had the measure of a bagful, 
and thus divided the gold, which was then 
returned to the sacks. Next, he brought forth 
other bags from the vault, until the table was 
covered. This done, he went out of the room, 
to reappear after a minute, wearing an old 





PROLOGUE 


13 


soft hat and a rain-coat with capacious pockets, 
in which he stored, one by one, the bags of 
gold. 

“Two more trips will do it,” he muttered to 
himself, as he turned to close and lock the 
vault. “I must dictate that letter tonight.” 
Under the touch of his hand, the section of 
wainscoting swung back into its place. There 
was not even the suggestion of a crevice to 
hint of the hiding-place behind the carved 
wood; the miser turned, and went hastily 
from the room. 


The Dresden clock on the mantel had just 
sounded the hour of four with its golden notes 
when Abernethey reentered. The water ran 
in a stream from his hat; all around him on 
the floor, as he came to a stand inside the 
door, drops from the rain-coat formed a 
growing pool. With a gesture of weariness, 
he cast off the hat, then freed himself from 
the coat, which he threw down on the floor 
with a carelessness which of itself was suffi¬ 
cient evidence that the treasure of gold was 
no longer there. He went forward to the 




14 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


fireplace, where he sank down into the morris 
chair, huddling without movement, as one 
exhausted. It was half an hour before he 
had rested enough for further exertion. 
Then, clumsily and with many groans, he 
stood up, and once more left the room. He 
returned soon with a phonograph and a box 
of rolls, which he set on the table. After he 
had arranged the machine, he began to dictate 
a letter into the receiver. His words came 
distinctly, swiftly, without ever any trace of 
hesitation. As soon as the first roll had been 
filled with the record, he paused to insert 
another, and then straightway continued with 
similar precision. When, at last, the miser 
made an end, he had used many rolls, and the 
first gleam of dawn was beating weakly on 
the drawn shades of the room. 




CHAPTER I 
adventurers’ pact 

S AXE TEMPLE regarded with pardon¬ 
able pride the supper-table laid for four 
in the parlor of his bachelor apartment. Then, 
as a knock made known the first arrival, he 
went to the door, and opened it eagerly. At 
sight of the tall, soldier-like figure standing on 
the threshold, his face lighted. 

“Roy Morton, by all that’s good!” he cried. 
“Hello Saxe, old man,” came the answer, in 
a musical monotone surprisingly gentle from 
one so stalwart. “Got your letter, and here I 
am. Incidentally, I’m tickled to death over the 
idea of some real excitement. I haven’t had any 
since a jolly fight in Mexico with a detective, 
who thought I was an absconder from the 
States, and tried to hustle me across the 
border.” Morton thrust out a rather heavy 
chin, so that in a twinkling his face grew 
threatening, savage; his kindly blue eyes paled, 
the lids drew closer. “I had colored souvenirs 
of his earnestness scattered all over my anat¬ 
omy for a fortnight. But I didn’t have to have 

15 


16 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


a doctor to patch me up, and he did, so I was 
satisfied. In fact, I got the doctor for him as 
soon as he apologized for his mistake.” Mor¬ 
ton chuckled at the memory. His face was 
again all amiability. 

Saxe laughed. “You still wear a chip on 
your shoulder in order to entice somebody into 
a scrap,” he said. 

“Nonsense!” Morton exclaimed, huffily. 
“You ought to know that I don’t want any¬ 
thing violent. I always try to steer clear of 
trouble. It’s only when something comes up 
that a man must resent for the sake of his 
self-respect that I ever resort to brute force. 
Why, I-” 

Saxe ruthlessly interrupted: 

“Oh, certainly, you’re a man of peace, all 
right! Only—ah, here’s one of them.” 

Saxe sprang to his feet, and hurried to the 
door, on which an imperative knocking 
sounded. As he turned the knob, the new¬ 
comer pushed his way into the room uncere¬ 
moniously, a man as tall as Morton, but whose 
six feet of height bulked much larger by reason 
of the massive build and large head, thatched 
shaggily with thick, iron-gray hair. The face 






ADVENTURERS’ PACT 


17 


showed rugged ugliness, emphasized by muddy 
skin. His voice was wheezy from climbing the 
stairs. 

“Well, and what’s it all about? What and 
why? Filibustering? Abduction? Sunken 
treasure? Count me in on the scheming, strat¬ 
egy, conspiring, plotting. But leave me out 
when it comes to donning the diving-suit, or 
engaging in the merry sword-play at the head 
of the stairs, or any aviation. Well, well, it’s 
like old times to be together.” He had shaken 
hands with the two men while speaking, 
serenely disregarding their verbal greetings, 
for his huge voice boomed over theirs. “No cig¬ 
arette,” he concluded, waving away the offered 
box, as he sank down beside Morton on the 
couch. “I prefer a man’s smoke.” He drew 
forth, prepared and lighted an especially fat 
and black cigar. “The doctor says I smoke 
too much,” he added, comfortably, after inhal¬ 
ing a startling volume of the smoke. 

Saxe smiled unsympathetically. 

“It’s eating so much and taking no exercise 
that makes you puffy.” 

Billy Walker snorted indignantly. 

“I only eat enough to keep this absurdly 




18 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


large carcass of mine properly stoked,” he 
declared. “Of course, I don't take violent 
exercise. I want my strength for brain-work. 
You can’t use the same vital force in two ways. 
If I wanted to be intellectually foolish like you 
and Roy, why, I’d consume my energy in keep¬ 
ing hard as nails. I, however, prefer intelli¬ 
gence to biceps—where’s Dave?” 

“That’s the answer,” Saxe exclaimed, as a 
knock again sounded. 

A moment later, David Thwing, the third 
and last guest, was in the room. He was the 
only short member of the group, but he was 
broad across the shoulders, with a stocky form 
that promised unusual strength. He might 
have been good-looking, but for the fact that 
his nose had once been disastrously smashed 
and never rightly repaired. Its present outline 
was as choppy as the Channel seas in a gale. 
It gave to his face a suggestion of the prize¬ 
ring. 

Now that the party was complete, Saxe bade 
his guests take their places at the table. 

“No explanations till we’re done with the 
meal,” he announced, in answer to the ques¬ 
tions of his friends. 





ADVENTURERS' PACT 


19 


It was only when the table had been cleared 
of all save decanters and glasses and smoking 
materials, that he at last stood up to address 
his friends. A certain formality in his manner 
arrested their attention, and they regarded him 
with a sudden increase of curiosity. 

“It’s now six years since we left the uni¬ 
versity, M Saxe began. “In the last year, we 
made a boyish pact. We agreed to answer the 
call of anyone of us who became embarked in 
adventure of a sort to require the assistance 
from the others. So I have summoned you in 
accordance with the terms of our agreement; 
you see, I really have a sort of adventure to 
offer you, though perhaps you'll think Fm a bit 
selfish in the matter, for the profit will be all 
mine. Roy, however, has made money enough 
so that he doesn't need any more, and Billy 
always did have more than he could spend, 
with his foolish ideas of just learning things, 
instead of living them. Dave is reasonably 
poor, but, too, he's reasonably honest, and so 
he's better off without the temptations of great 
wealth. I've come to the conclusion, after 
careful reflection, that I'm the only one of the 
quartette who actually is in want of money. 




20 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


My tastes are luxurious, and, too, I have ambi¬ 
tious projects in the direction of operas that I 
wish to write. I can’t give myself to such 
serious work while I have to turn all my ener¬ 
gies into musical pot-boilers to soothe the 
savage breast of the wolf at the door. ,, 

“The metaphor is mixed,” Billy Walker 
grumbled. “The purpose of pot-boilers is to 
soothe the stomach, not the breast. But what 
could be expected of a composer essaying 
oratory?” 

Saxe accepted the criticism without rancor. 

“Anyhow, IT1 let that stand by way of intro¬ 
duction,” he continued. “The pith of the mat¬ 
ter is this: I’ve had some money left to me, 
a tidy sum in fact.” 

Instantly, there came a chorus of congratu¬ 
lations from his friends. But the host waved 
his hand for silence, while he shook his head 
lugubriously. 

“I’m not exactly ready for congratulations 
yet,” he declared, when they had fallen silent 
again. “It’s true, Eve had some money left to 
me, but the deuce of it is, I don’t know where 
the money is.” 

Exclamations burst forth anew, eager ques- 





ADVENTURERS’ PACT 


21 


tionings. 

“The simplest way of explaining the whole 
affair,” Saxe went on, “is to make it known to 
you in the form in which it was made known to 
me: 

“The morning of the day on which I wrote 
to you, I received a letter. That letter was 
the first warning I had of this possible adven¬ 
ture. Now, Til read the letter to you, and then 
you’ll have the same knowledge of the whole 
matter as I have. By way of preface, I need 
only say that the writer of the letter has since 
died, and I have been formally notified by his 
lawyer concerning the old man’s will, in exact 
accordance with the terms of the letter he 
wrote me.” 

The young man took from his breast-pocket 
a typewritten letter, and proceeded to read it 
aloud. From the first word to the last, the 
auditors sat silent, almost without movement, 
save now and then for the relighting of cigar 
or cigarette. 

The letter ran as follows: 

Saxe Temple, Esq., 

New York City. 

Dear Sir: 

It will doubtless astonish you at the outset to receive 




22 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


a letter of this length from one who is a complete 
stranger to you. It will astonish you still more when 
you learn the contents of this communication. I shall, 
however, set forth the facts in such wise as may enable 
you to grasp them understanding^. For your opinion 
concerning them or me I care little. I am, in fact, 
making use of you as a sort of sop to conscience on 
finding myself face to face with death. 

All that you need to know is this: 

I am a musician. All the love of my life has been 
given to music—with two exceptions, of which I shall 
write later on in this letter. As to the music, I have 
loved it as an amateur, for I was of independent means 
with no need to mix in the sordid struggle for money. 
I have never written for production. I have been con¬ 
tent for the most part merely to study, to apprehend 
as best I might the work of the masters. What I 
have myself composed has been of a wholly desultory 
sort, fragments of fragmentary ideas. I have 
fashioned now and then the motif of a theme. I have 
scientifically worked out by an application of mathe¬ 
matical laws, based on ratios of vibration, certain 
new things in the way of harmony. All these I have 
left to you unconditionally. I dare hope and believe 
that you will be able to make some use of the material. 
If you do so, pray spare yourself the pains of giving 
me any credit—if your honesty be over-nice—^or wor¬ 
rying your conscience if you chance to be dishonest. 
I have no idea that I shall be messing around anywhere 
in your environment after I am once dead, and the 
world’s praise can be less than nothing to me after I 
have gone from earth. But because you are a musician 
and, as I have come to believe, an earnest one, I have 
decided to make you heir to my musical legacies cer¬ 
tainly—to my money perhaps. I’ll explain the “per¬ 
haps” presently. 

But first I must tell you of the love that rivaled my 
love for music. This was for your mother. On that 





ADVENTURERS’ PACT 


23 


account my thoughts have been directed to you with 
special force. On that account this letter to you and 
all this letter implies. 

Your mother as a girl possessed a wonderful nat¬ 
ural voice and, too, the soul of a musician. It so 
chanced that she and I were neighbors and we met 
often socially. I was only a few years older than she, 
and I was already skilled in music, for I had devoted 
myself to the study of it from childhood. I recog¬ 
nized the supreme worth of her voice at the first hear¬ 
ing. I fell in love with your mother then—as a man 
with a woman, yes—even more as a musician in love, 
with a glorious instrument of music. It soon became 
evident that while she liked me, she could not love 
me as a wife should love her husband. I realized the 
truth, and though I suffered as an emotional tempera¬ 
ment must suffer in such case, I did not despair. The 
musician in me triumphed over the man for I rejoiced 
in the glorious gift that she would manifest to the 
world. So I merged my passion for the woman in 
the enthusiasm of the maestro for his pupil. I offered 
myself as her teacher and she accepted me in that 
capacity. For two years I taught her. Under my 
training, her method became perfect. Pier soul, too, 
grew, so that she had sympathy and understanding. 

Then, just when she was all prepared for her tri¬ 
umph and my own, she fell in love with your father. 
She married him. In spite of all my prayers, my 
reproaches, my supplications, she abandoned her 
career for love’s sake. Her husband was opposed to 
his wife’s appearing in public as a singer. She yielded 
to his wishes without remonstrance. I believe she 
was happy in her way because she loved your father 
sincerely, and she counted no sacrifice too great for 
love. 

You, as a musician, can apprehend perhaps the suf¬ 
fering I underwent in consequence of this disappoint¬ 
ment. It sickened me of my fellows—made me a 





24 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


recluse. It was in my life of retirement that I devel¬ 
oped my third love—that of the miser for gold. I 
secretely transformed all my possessions into gold, 
which I kept in a secret safe here in my house. _Oh, 
the hours of night during which I have worshiped 
before the shining heaps! But enough has been writ¬ 
ten at one time and another over the raptures of the 
miser, a rapture without justification in reason, yet 
more masterful than any other. I shall not weary 
you with explanation or excuse. The statement of the 
fact alone is sufficient. 

Now at last I find myself the victim of a disease 
that must end my life course within a few days, per¬ 
haps hours. It becomes necessary then for me to dis¬ 
pose of my wealth. I am without relations with the 
exception of a distant cousin and her daughter, who 
are already well-to-do. To this daughter I have left 
my house here and the land that goes with it—a thou¬ 
sand acres—which has some value today and will have 
more very soon, as the region is being opened up. 

For the bulk of my wealth, which as I have said is 
in gold, I have selected you as a possible heir, but 
you must do your part. I have thus chosen you be¬ 
cause I dare hope that by it you may be helped in 
accomplishing something of worth in the art of music 
and so atone in some measure for the loss occasioned 
by your mother’s abandonment of her career. The 
condition which I have imposed on this legacy is 
merely to test you as to your perseverance and your 
intelligence. In the event of your failure, half of the 
money will go to the girl, and the other half to the 
founding of a musicians’ home. 

After my death you will be notified by my lawyer, 
who has my will duly drawn in accordance with the 
conditions I here roughly explain. At once then, you 
will come to this place and here conduct a search for 
my treasure-chest, which contains three hundred 
thousand dollars in gold. If you discover this within 




ADVENTURERS' PACT 


25 


a month from the day of my death, tins treasure shall 
be yours absolutely. If you fail in the quest the seals 
of my description of the hiding-place, which has been 
deposited with my lawyer, will be opened and the 
treasure secured, to be divided between my young 
kinswoman, Margaret West, and the establishing and 
endowing of a home for disabled musicians. 

Because you are the son of your mother whom I 
loved, and because you are a musician of promise, I 
have thus chosen you as my possible heir. If you are 
as acute as I think, you will easily discover the neces¬ 
sary clues to the hiding-place of the gold. In the 
hunt you have full liberty to use any means you wish, 
with the privilege of residing in the house here with 
your helpers—if you employ them—during the length 
of the time allowed you. 

Yours truly, 

Horace Abernethey. 

As he finished the reading, Saxe folded 
the sheets, and replaced the letter in his 
pocket. Then, he sank back into his chair, 
and surveyed his friends quizzically. 

“Well?” he demanded. 

David Thwing beamed happily through 
the heavy lenses of his eyeglasses, as he 
spoke: 

“And so you want us to go with you, and 
of course we will.” He gazed benignantly 
on his fellow guests, then opened his mouth, 
and trolled in a musical baritone, “A hunt¬ 
ing we will go!” Roy swung into the mea- 




26 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


sure with a nicety of accord in the tenor that 
told of old-time practice. Saxe added his 
bass, and the song rang out in an harmoni¬ 
ous prophecy of success. 

As the refrain ceased, Billy Walker 
expressed himself whimsically: 

“This comes as a great relief to me,” he 
explained, grinning cheerfully. “I’m all tied 
up with commission for erudite essays Eve 
promised to write. I’ve been unable to fig¬ 
ure any way in which I could fulfill my obli¬ 
gations. Now, by cutting the whole thing, 
the difficulty will be removed. I shall simply 
disappear with you. Saxe, old boy, I thank 
you. When do we start?” 

“And you, Dave?” the host questioned 
eagerly, though this friend had already given 
consent for the three. 

“I haven’t a blessed thing to do,” was the 
contented answer. “Apart from the pleasant 
thrill incident to this questing for hidden 
treasure, your wish for my assistance gives 
me a new feeling of self-respect, due to the 
fact of having something in the nature of 
business to attend to. When do we start?” 

Roy Morton nodded amiably, as Saxe 





ADVENTURERS’ PACT 


27 


turned in his direction. 

"Of course,” he declared. "When do we 
start?” 

"You’re trumps, all of you,” the host 
declared, gratefully. "I knew I could 
depend on you, but to have your assurance 
takes a weight off my mind all the same. 
I’d feel infernally helpless, alone on the job. 
With you chaps standing by, I know we’ll 
win out. As for starting, well, time is 
important—there’s a bit less than a month 
now left to us. I’ve looked up trains. 
There’s a good one that starts in the after¬ 
noon. I know it’s awfully short notice, but, 
if you could manage to make it tomorrow, 
why—” he haulted doubtfully, to stare at his 
friends. 

"Tomorrow it is!” boomed Billy Walker; 
and the others echoed agreement. 




CHAPTER II 

THE SECRETARY 


"N THE performance of her secretarial 
L duties, May Thurston duly drummed on 
her machine the remarkable letter to Saxe 
Temple, in which the old miser made known 
his intended disposition of a golden treasury. 
Because she possessed an excellent New 
England conscience, the girl maintained 
silence, despite the urgings of a feminine 
desire to share the secret. This reticence 
on her part was the more admirable inas¬ 
much as, just at this time, her affections 
were becoming strongly engaged by a suitor. 

Hartley Masters, the man in the case, was 
a civil engineer employed in the neighbor¬ 
hood with a survey for an electric road. On 
one occasion, he had stopped at Abernethey’s 
cottage for a glass of water from the well. 
The master of the house was absent at the 
time, but the secretary was present, and, by 
some chance, out of doors that pleasant May 
morning. Conventions seemed rather 
absurd in that remote region. The young 

28 



THE SECRETARY 


29 


engineer admired the charming face and 
slender form, and hastened to engage her 
in conversation. She responded without 
reluctance, rather with pleasure in this diver¬ 
sion from the monotony of her days. After¬ 
ward, a considerable intimacy developed 
between the two. May Thurston had much 
of her time free, and Masters contrived so 
to arrange his work as to take full advantage 
of her leisure. That his heart was touched 
seriously may be doubted, but his courtship 
lacked nothing in the evidences of intensity 
and sincerity. He made a deep impression 
on the girl, who was both ingenuous and 
tender. Masters was the first to whom she 
had given more than the most casual heed, 
and, almost at the outset, she found her 
affections engaged. She regarded him as 
astonishingly handsome—as, in truth, he 
was —i n a melodramatic fashion of his own, 
with huge dark eyes, long-lashed and glow¬ 
ing, a sweep of black mustache, and thick, 
clustering hair, which was always artistically 
touseled. In fact, the whole appearance of 
the man was blatantly artistic, in the bohe¬ 
mian acceptation of the word, and he was 




30 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


scrupulous to wear on all occasions a loose 
bow of silk at his throat. He was tall, too, 
and broad enough, but there was too much 
slope to his shoulders, his neck was too long, 
his head bulked too large for harmony. His 
voice was agreeable, his manners were 
suave, quickened by a jauntiness, which was 
perhaps assumed to harmonize with the 
insouciant air of the cravat. May Thurston, 
who had read her Byron, thought of him as 
The Corsair, and her heart fluttered. 

It is easily understood that the secretary’s 
keeping silence concerning her employer’s 
remarkable testamentary plans showed her 
the possessor of some strength of character, 
as well as a sense of honor. She even man¬ 
aged to keep her own counsel after Masters 
openly declared his love, and besought her 
to become his wife—at some vague time in 
the future, when he should have arrived at 
a position of independence. She yielded 
readily to his ardor, and had plighted troth, 
all a-tremble with maidenly confusion and 
womanly raptures. Then, a few days later, 
Abernethey died. She felt now that she was 
at liberty to reveal the circumstances of the 




THE SECRETARY 


31 


will to her lover. As they strolled on the 
lake shore, the evening of the day after the 
miser’s death, May told the story, to which 
Masters listened with absorbed attention. 

“Mad as a hatter!” he ejaculated, con¬ 
temptuously, as the girl brought her narra¬ 
tive to a close. Yet, though his voice was 
mocking, there was manifest in his expres¬ 
sion an eagerness that puzzled the girl. 

She would not permit his comment to go 
unrebuked: 

“No,” she declared firmly, “Mr. Aberne- 
they was not mad. He was eccentric, of 
course—very! That was all, however. He 
wasn’t crazy—unless every miser is crazy. 
He had a sense of humor, though, and he 
didn’t quite know what to do with his money. 
So He finally worked out the scheme I’ve 
told you of.” 

“Then, he really did it as a sort of joke,” 
Masters suggested eagerly. 

“As much that as anything else,” May 
answered, and her tone was thoughtful. 
“There was sentiment on account of Saxe 
Temple’s mother and the old love-affair. 
And, of course, this young man’s interest in 




32 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


music made it seem like a good disposal of 
the money. But I have a suspicion, too, that 
Mr. Abernethey really enjoyed hiding the 
money—making it hard for anyone else to 
get hold of it, you know. That idea appealed 
to his miserly instincts, I think. How he 
hated to leave it! ‘No pockets in a shroud!’ 
I’ve heard him mutter a hundred times. It 
was horrible—and pitiful.” 

“Yes, miserliness is an awful vice,” 
Masters agreed. His tone was perfunctory, 
although his inflections were energetic 
enough. 

There fell a little silence between the 
lovers. Where they sat on the west shore, 
beneath the rampart of wooded hills, it was 
already deep dusk, but out on the open space 
of water shone a luminous purple light, shot 
over with rose and gold, a reflected sunset 
glow over the eastern mountains. May 
Thurston stared happily at the wide, danc¬ 
ing path over the water that led to the newly 
risen full moon, and she dreamed blissfully 
of the glory of life that was soon to come 
to her beside the man who had chosen her 
as his mate. Masters, on the contrary, while 




THE SECRETARY 


33 


equally enthusiastic in his musings, was by 
no means sentimental, as he gazed unsee- 
ingly across the lake’s level, now wimpling 
daintily at touch of the slow breeze. The 
young engineer’s thoughts were, truth to 
tell, of a sort sordid, even avaricious, covet¬ 
ous; and, at last, after a period of profound 
reflection, he uttered his thought: 

“May, dearest,” he said softly, with a 
tender cadence, “what a shame it is that that 
old miser didn’t think of us!” 

The girl faced her companion with a 
movement of shocked surprise. 

“Think of us!” she repeated, confusedly. 
“Whatever can you mean?” 

Masters turned, and regarded May with 
intentness, a fond smile showing beneath the 
curve of his mustache. His voice, as he 
spoke now, was softer than usual: 

“Why,” he said, “I was just thinking on 
the hardness of fate—sometimes. Here was 
this old man, with more money than he knew 
what to do with, and here are we without a 
penny. There was nothing money could do 
for him, except gratify a vice—the madness 
of the miser; and money could do everything 






34 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


for you and me, sweetheart. The thought 
of it made me say it was a shame the old 
man didn’t think of us!” 

“Well, after all, we couldn’t expect him 
to,” the girl said placidly, with the sober 
sense characteristic of her. “Of course, it 
would have been nice to have his fortune, 
but we must be patient, Hartley.” She 
turned her face again to the east, and looked 
out into the deeper purples of the distance, 
beholding again fair visions of the happiness 
to come. 

The man’s tones were somber, as he 
replied: 

“I tell you, May, it seems to me like no 
man’s money.” 

The girl aroused herself from dreaming, 
and for the second time regarded her lover 
with puzzled inquiry. 

“What do you mean by that, Hartley?” 
she demanded. 

“I mean,” came the deliberate answer, 
“that this hidden fortune of Abernethey’s 
doesn’t really belong to anyone at this 
moment.” 

“Nonsense!” the secretary exclaimed 




THE SECRETARY 


35 


briskly, confident as to the fact out of her 
stores of business experience. “The money 
belongs to the estate. By due course of law, 
it will go to Saxe Temple, if he fulfills the 
condition under which it has been left him. 
If he fails, it will go to the girl and the 
musicians’ home.” She smiled contentedly, 
pleasantly conscious of her own erudition, 
and looked out over the lake again, watching 
idly the frolicing dance of the swallows to 
the movement of the waves. 

“On the contrary,” Masters continued 
argumentatively, “at this very moment, the 
ownership of that gold is problematical. 
Nobody exactly owns it, although theoreti¬ 
cally the title to it is vested in the surrogate’s 
court, or whatever they call it in this wilder¬ 
ness. As a matter of strict fact, that gold 
has become hidden treasure. To be sure, the 
old man has left directions as to who shall 
have it if found, and who shall have it if 
it’s not found. But, suppose now, someone 
else were to find it—not Saxe Temple?” 
The girl uttered an ejaculation, and faced 
her lover with startled surprise, meeting the 
fire of his gaze bewilderedly. “Suppose I 




36 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


were to find it?” 

May Thurston sprang to her feet, and 
regarded the speaker with an expression of 
sheer amazement, which swiftly changed to 
one of dismay. The softly-tinted rose of Her 
cheeks flamed suddenly to scarlet; her lumin¬ 
ous eyes, usually so gentle, sparkled danger¬ 
ously. She stared fixedly at the man for a 
few seconds. At first, he encountered her 
gaze steadily enough, smiling. But, pres¬ 
ently, under the accusation in her look, the 
smile passed from his lips, and his eyes fell. 
The girl continued to observe him indig¬ 
nantly for a few moments more. Then, at 
last, she spoke; and now there was more of 
sorrow than of anger in her voice: 
“Hartley!” 

The exclamation was a reproach, and as 
such the young man recognized it. He rose 
quickly, caught May’s hands in his, and 
spoke tenderly in justification of himself, his 
eyes again meeting hers boldly. 

In the days that followed, Masters showed 
a wily patience. He recurred to the subject 
of the miser’s gold again and yet again. The 
girl’s reluctance slowly grew less, as she 




THE SECRETARY 


37 


found herself unable to combat the ingenui¬ 
ties of his reasoning. Finally, she reached 
a point where she no longer opposed his 
wishes, although she still held to her own 
conviction as to the wrongfulness of that 
which he proposed. The man felt that he 
could trust to her neutrality, so reluctantly 
conceded. With this for the time being, he 
rested content. 




CHAPTER III 

THE ASSEMBLING 


T HE dwelling in the wilderness con¬ 
tained only two servants, a woman of 
fifty, who performed the duties of house¬ 
keeper and cook, and her husband, slightly 
older, who did the small amount of outdoor 
work required about the cottage, but, during 
the open weather, was chiefly concerned 
with the care of the two motor boats, which 
had been the miser's single extravagance. 

After the funeral, the lawyer of the 
deceased ordered Jake Dustin and his wife 
to remain at the cottage for the time being, 
to await the outcome of the bequest. May 
Thurston, also, was retained as the one per¬ 
son most conversant with Abernethey’s 
affairs. These arrangements made, the 
attorney returned to Boston, holding him¬ 
self in readiness for another visit to the cot¬ 
tage at any time when his presence there 
might be required in connection with the 
inheritance. Masters, naturally enough, 
rejoiced in the situation thus created, which 

3 $ 


THE ASSEMBLING 


39 


left him entire freedom in the prosecution of 
his illicit search for the treasure. He 
realized to the full that his best opportunity 
would be limited to the short interval before 
the arrival on the scene of others, who would 
inevitably regard his presence with surprise, 
if not with actual suspicion. For the 
moment, however, there was none to offer 
any hindrance. Jake was engaged in over¬ 
hauling his engines within the boathouse, 
which was situated a full hundred yards 
from the cottage; he had neither eyes nor 
ears for the actions of Hartley Masters who, 
in his opinion, was merely “sparkin’ that 
Thurston gal mighty clus.” Mrs. Dustin, 
for her part, was absorbed, as always, in a 
relentless warfare against matter out of 
place, which she consistently loathed as dirt. 
As she invariably talked aloud to herself, she 
gave ample warning of her whereabouts at 
all times, and it was no difficult thing to 
evade her. 

Yet, despite the advantages of his situa¬ 
tion, Masters, to his chagrin, learned noth¬ 
ing concerning the treasure. 

The young man’s failure was pleasing, 




40 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


rather than otherwise, to May Thurston, 
who, at intervals, kept alongside him in the 
quest, though always without affording him 
other assistance than the doubtful comfort 
of her presence. Despite the fact that his 
specious arguments had silenced her, she 
was by no means convinced as to the pro¬ 
priety of his undertaking. Her conscience 
still spoke clearly, even while she abandoned 
controversy with Masters for love’s sake. 

A telegram from Mrs. West came to May, 
in which it was announced that the widow 
and her daughter, Margaret, would arrive 
at the lake on the day following. The law¬ 
yer had advised Mrs. West concerning the 
death of Abernethey and her daughter’s 
inheritance of this property, together with 
the possibility of another fortune, should 
Saxe Temple fail in his search for the 
secreted hoard of gold. On receiving the 
telegram, May was in a flutter of pleasure- 
able excitement. Notwithstanding her 
devotion to Masters, the isolation of this life 
in the wilderness was a weariness to her 
spirit, and she joyously looked forward to 
the coming of the heiress, a girl presumably 




THE ASSEMBLING 


41 


of about her own age, who might afford her 
that companionship she so craved. 

Masters, on the other hand, was filled with 
an impotent rage against the promptitude of 
Mrs. West’s answer to the announcement 
of Abernethey’s death. 

“The vultures flock to feed on the carcass,” 
the engineer sneered, with an angry tug at 
the flowing length of his mustache. 

May’s lips set primly, as she stared at the 
handsome face of her lover with rather less 
than her usual admiration for his romantic 
air. It occurred to her active intelligence that 
Hartley was hardly the one to scorn those 
who came lawfully to claim their own, while 
he was unlawfully seeking the property of 
another with such feverish eagerness. But, 
with feminine wisdom, she held her peace, 
while Masters went on fuming futilely 
against fate. With the aid of time-tables, 
she calculated the exact hour at which Mrs. 
West’s arrival might be expected, since the 
message had neglected to state this, and 
then sought Jake, to whom she gave instruc¬ 
tions that he should go down the lake in one 
of the motor-boats the next morning to meet 




42 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


the ten o’clock train, north-bound, at the 
station three miles away. When, that night, 
Masters, still grumbling, kissed her good 
night, her lips were passive, which had not 
been their wont. 

Masters reappeared early the next morn¬ 
ing, for he was aware that in a few hours 
his best opportunity to search would be past. 
He utterly ignored the fact that his engineer¬ 
ing work was being neglected to an extent 
that must soon involve him in serious trou¬ 
ble with his employers. The possibility of 
wealth had suddenly come to dominate his 
thoughts, and it allowed no rivalry. He was 
pale, as if after a sleepless night, and his 
thatch of hair was tangled in a confusion 
real for once, not contrived with studied 
pains. His great, black eyes were glowing, 
as he encountered May at the cottage door. 
The girl sighed as she noted the haggard 
appearance of his face and the tenseness of 
his movements, usually so briskly graceful. 
A certain latent fierceness in his expression 
caused a thrill of apprehension in her heart. 
She was shocked that he could enter thus 
whole-souledly into a nefarious project for 




THE ASSEMBLING 


43 


the sake of gain. 

“Where’s the old woman?” Masters ques¬ 
tioned curtly, after a scant phrase of greet¬ 
ing. 

“In the kitchen,” May answered. 

“I must hurry,” the engineer continued, 
alertly. “But, anyhow, I have almost four 
hours clear. They can’t get here before 
eleven, I guess.” 

“If the train’s on time, they should get 
here about half-past ten,” May corrected. 
There was a note of warning in her voice. 
“Don’t let them find you—” she broke off, 
ashamed to finish her thought aloud. 

Masters laughed shortly. 

“No fear! I’ll watch out; but hold them 
back as much as you can,” he bade her. 
Without more ado, he entered the house. 

She heard him go quickly into the music- 
room, shutting the door behind him. For 
a moment, she rested motionless, irresolute, 
her face troubled. Then, with a gesture of 
annoyance, she turned away, and went 
toward the waiting launch. 

The north-bound train arrived hardly a 
minute behind its schedule. May, waiting 




44 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


eagerly on the station platform, scrutinized 
the few passengers as they clambered down 
from the day-coaches. Then, her attention 
was caught by the activities of a colored 
porter at the vestibule steps of the Pullman. 
Beside him, on the cinder path, were three 
valises of heavy leather, somewhat battered, 
but of undeniable dignity. As the man 
adjusted the portable step beside the track, 
two women appeared above him on the plat¬ 
form of the car. May had no doubt as to 
their identity. She noted the simple ele¬ 
gance of Mrs. West’s traveling suit, the 
modish air of the daughter’s. She observed, 
too, the radiant loveliness of the girl’s face. 
A subtle premonition of sorrow obsessed her, 
as she stared half-resentfully at the beauty 
of Margaret West, elusively revealed from 
within a mesh of gray veil. She fought 
against the mood, and went forward to greet 
the strangers. 

The manner of the two travelers was so 
cordial that the secretary quickly forgot her 
presentiment. Mrs. West proved to be a 
handsome, though rather delicate, woman, 
of perhaps fifty years—in voice and manner, 




THE ASSEMBLING 


45 


and in nature as well, a true gentlewoman 
of a type now somewhat out of fashion. As 
May had already learned from her late 
employer, this lady had, throughout her life, 
enjoyed ample means, though not great 
wealth 1 . The daughter, Margaret, resembled 
the mother, but in her slender form was the 
grace of youth. 

“There’s no doubt that it’s still a real wil¬ 
derness hereabouts,” Margaret declared, 
after the first greetings had been exchanged. 
“I thought it might have changed, since our 
visit ten years ago.” 

“And it’s still all wilderness for the way 
we have yet to go in the motor-boat,” May 
answered, smiling. “Here is Jake—Mr. 
Dustin, you know. He’ll carry your valises 
to the landing.” She indicated the embar¬ 
rassed boatman, who was hovering doubt¬ 
fully near. With attention thus thrust upon 
him, he grinned sheepishly, then turned to 
the luggage. 

“Chris will help him,” Mrs. West said. 

May looked in the direction of the 
speaker’s nod, and started in astonishment. 
In her absorption with the two women, she 





46 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


had observed neither the coming nor the 
presence of this man. Now, she regarded 
him curiously. Evidently, from his appear¬ 
ance, as well as from Mrs. West’s words, he 
was a servant, and May guessed that he 
must be as well an old and highly esteemed 
family retainer, since he thus made one of the 
party on this trip. He was a short man, 
rather absurdly fat, though not in the least 
heavy of movement, or wheezy of breath. But 
he had a general roundness, of a sort almost 
infantile, incongruous with perfect baldness. 
His tiny black eyes twinkled benignantly. A 
somewhat suggestive redness of the skin 
made the caricature effect of a Bacchic 
Cupid. For the rest, he was neatly dressed 
in black, and he smiled genially on May, and 
touched his hat decorously, at the reference 
to himself, with a respectful, “Yes, Miss.” 
Then, he stooped alertly to the luggage, 
seized a bag in either hand, and waited 
expectantly for the more sluggish Jake to 
point the way. 

May had wholly forgotten her first 
impression long before the cottage landing 
was reached. She found Mrs. West kindly 




THE ASSEMBLING 


47 


and interested, while Margaret displayed a 
democratic friendliness that was inexpressi¬ 
bly grateful to the lonely girl. But, at the 
last, all her apprehensions came crowding 
back. It was at the moment when they 
emerged from the boathouse, and started 
toward the cottage. 

“Why, who is that?” Mrs. West asked, 
with a note of curiosity in her voice. 

May looked up, to see Hartley Masters, 
as he stepped briskly out from the front door 
of the house. At sight of the party on the 
shore, he halted abruptly, in seeming confu¬ 
sion; then, after an instant of indecision, he 
swung sharply to the right, into a path that 
ran along the lake to the south. 

“Oh, it’s Mr. Masters,” May answered, a 
bit falteringly. “He’s an engineer at work 
near here—he calls—sometimes.” 

Some stress in the speaker’s voice caught 
the attention of Margaret. She regarded the 
troubled face of the secretary intently for 
a moment; then, she stared speculatively 
after the tall figure of the engineer, as it 
passed swiftly into the concealment of the 
forest. 




CHAPTER IV 

EVE OF BATTLE 


■m/r ASTERS came suddenly on May 
It JL Thurston that same afternoon, as she 
chanced to be alone on the cottage porch. 
When he appeared so swiftly out of the 
wood, which was thick behind the house, the 
girl realized that he must have been lying 
in wait for this opportunity to meet her 
unobserved. The stealthiness of the act 
revolted her anew, and the disagreeable 
impression was in no wise relieved by the 
engineer’s conversation or manner. 

“Nothing—I found nothing at all!” he 
declared, curtly. His large eyes were glow¬ 
ing with anger. “I can’t understand it.” 
His tone was full of rebellion against the 
injustice of fate. 

“But—” May began. Her voice was hesi¬ 
tating, timid. 

Masters went on stormily, ‘disregarding 
her. 

“I mustn’t give up though—just because 
they’ve come.” He nodded toward the cot- 

48 




EVE OF BATTLE 


49 


tage. “You must introduce me, at once. 
Then, get them outside, to look about—and 
Til have another try at the gold.” 

The girl was dismayed by his persistence. 
She wished to point out the danger of dis¬ 
covery, but the engineer would listen to no 
protests, and, in the end, his inflexible will 
beat down her resistance. 

So, presently, Masters was duly intro¬ 
duced to Mrs. West and her daughter. His 
manner was now all suavity. He devoted 
himself to making a good impression, and in 
this he succeeded, for he was in fact usually 
attractive to women, though not to men, 
;who regarded him with latent suspicion, or 
open hostility, according to their various 
natures. In this instance, his handsome face, 
graceful, frank manner and lively chat 
diverted and pleased the mother, while the 
more susceptible daughter found herself near 
to blushing under the earnest regard of a 
stranger so romantic of appearance and so 
respectfully, yet obviously, an admirer of her 
own charms. Indeed, though Masters was 
very discreet, his manner somehow caused 
the trouble in May's heart to swell, for now 




50 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


it was leavened with jealousy. Yet, there 
was nothing overt, to which she might take 
exception. It was, rather, an intuition that 
warned her. But, when she again found her¬ 
self alone with her lover, she was confronted 
with offense in his first words: 

“We must keep our engagement secret 
from them.” 

Though May had had no thought of any 
present publicity for her romance, this per¬ 
emptory command came with a shock. 

“Why?” she demanded. “What do you 
mean, Hartley?” 

Masters became fluently plausible. His 
seeming candor disarmed criticism. 

“Margaret West is a pretty girl,” he 
explained, smiling, at last, “and she is evi¬ 
dently aware of the fact. If she thinks I’m 
dangling, so to speak—a victim to her 
charms—she and her mother won’t wonder 
any at my hanging around the place a good 
deal—and it’s Miss West’s place now, you 
know. It wouldn’t do for me to make myself 
too much at home here just as your fiance, 
she might be jealous.” 

His smile over this none too delicate 




EVE OF BATTLE 


51 


pleasantry was so caressing, his voice was 
so tender, he was so tall, so stalwart in 
picturesque fashion, so good to look on alto¬ 
gether, that May quite forgot her first 
instinct of indignation. After all, doubtless, 
he was right. 

“But you won't let her think you really 
serious?” she stipulated. 

Masters' face instantly grew grave; his 
voice took on a dignity almost rebuking. 

“No, little girl,'' he said, gently; “that 
wouldn't be fair to you, or to her, or to me. 
But we'll keep our secret for a time.” 

And to this, albeit reluctantly, May con¬ 
sented. That reluctance must have become 
open revolt, could she have known the inner 
workings of her lover's crafty and unscrupu¬ 
lous brain. For the fact of the matter was 
that the engineer had no sooner set eyes on 
Margaret West than new, daring plots began 
to shape themselves in his imagination. His 
heart thrilled at sight of her; his interest 
deepened second by second. He experienced, 
indeed, an attraction strange, dominant. 
The emotion was the more impressive inas¬ 
much as it was totally unlike that with which 




52 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


May Thurston had inspired him. He had 
admired the secretary in rather a placid fash¬ 
ion; he had enjoyed her dainty appearance, 
he had been agreeably entertained by her 
lively intelligence; most of all, he had 
received flattering unction to his vanity from 
the ease of his triumph over her heart. The 
case of Margaret was radically different. 
Even in the first interview with this girl, he 
found himself subject to a spell hitherto 
unknown in his experience of women. Being 
by no means a fool, he guessed that here in 
truth was one actually to possess his love. 

That realization worked no sort of regen¬ 
eration in the moral nature of the man. On 
the contrary, since he was essentially selfish, 
it served only to spur him on toward bold 
speculations as to all possible gains for him¬ 
self. Since he knew the terms of the Aber- 
nethey will, a new scheme flashed on him 
within five minutes of his introduction to 
Margaret. If he should be unable to find 
the hidden treasure for himself, he would 
strive his utmost to prevent the success of 
Saxe Temple in the quest, since failure on 
the heir’s part would mean Margaret’s 




EVE OF BATTLE 


53 


inheritance of one half the gold. By this 
means, although he would not secure the 
full amount of riches, he would at least 
become possessor of a moiety—for he would 
marry Margaret West. He felt no pang of 
regret for May Thurston, whom he planned 
to betray so basely. His sole concern was 
for his own advantage: the securing of the 
woman and the money that he desired 
fiercely. That he would succeed in this pre¬ 
posterous ambition, he did not doubt for a 
moment, confident of the favor with which 
the softer sex usually regarded him. He 
took the first step in his conscienceless 
scheme when he gazed with respectful admi¬ 
ration into the eyes of Margaret West; he 
took the second when he charged May 
Thurston to keep secret the troth he had 
plighted her. 

On the morning after the coming of Mrs. 
West and Margaret, the secretary received 
a telegram from Saxe Temple, with the 
announcement that he and his friends would 
reach the lake that same afternoon. So, 
there now remained for the engineer less 
than one day of liberty in which to prosecute 




54 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


the hunt for the treasure. For all his 
audacity, Masters knew that he could not 
dare to carry on the search during the inter¬ 
val even, except with utmost caution, lest 
he arouse the suspicions of the widow or her 
daughter. He had passed most of the time 
since their coming in racking his brain with 
vain conjectures as to a possible clue, with 
the hope of making actual investigation at 
a more propitious time. Now, however, the 
telegram warned him that his period was at 
an end. The presence of the heir and his 
associates would effectually halt the 
engineer’s operations, and he realized the 
fact with bitterness of spirit. Thereafter, 
he must perforce do what he might skulk- 
ingly, ever cautious to avoid any least guess 
by anyone as to his purpose. 

“But I’ll keep an eye out,” he confided to 
May, sullenly. “If they find a hint anywhere, 
I’ll beat them to the goal, after all, you’ll see!” 

She shrank at his words—something that 
was fast coming to be a habit with her. 

“But Mr. Temple has the right to it, you 
know,” she expostulated, weakly. 

“If he gets it!” Masters retorted with a 




EVE OF BATTLE 


55 


sneer that lifted slightly the luxurious mus¬ 
tache. “Only, IT1 see that he doesn’t. And, 
anyhow, I believe that he must be a pretty 
namby-pamby sort of chap. Fancy his bring¬ 
ing a band of helpers!” 

“Mr. Abernethey particularly said that he 
might do so,” May reminded her lover. 

“It seems a bit cowardly, just the same,” 
Masters maintained. “I’ll win out yet. I tell 
you, May, the fellow is handicapped: he fears 
failure.” 

Saxe Temple arrived at the foot of the lake 
in mid-afternoon, and with him came Roy 
Morton, Billy Walker and David Thwing. Jake 
was awaiting the incoming train, his weather¬ 
beaten face aglow with anticipation. The 
terms of the will having become known to him, 
he had developed what might be called a sport¬ 
ing interest in the issue. After years of mon¬ 
otony, excitement had jumped into his life. 
Therefore, he now advanced toward the four 
young men with suit-cases, who had descended 
from the Pullman, and bobbed his head ener¬ 
getically, his clean-shaven face wrinkled in a 
smile. 




56 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


“Mr. Temple and party, I ca’c’late?” he 
remarked inquiringly, looking from one to 
another. 

“I am Mr. Temple,” said the heir, with an 
answering smile, as he stepped forward. He 
indicated his companions with a gesture. 
“These are my friends, come to help me on a 
bit of business I have in the neighborhood. 
You know about it?” 

Jake beamed joyously. 

“Well, now, Fve got quite some suspicion- 
ings, as it were,” he admitted, cautiously. “I 
hope you’ve left everybody well to hum ?” 

“Oh, I believe some in the city are complain¬ 
ing,” Saxe replied, with apparent seriousness; 
“but the general health is about the average.” 

“Jest so!” Jake showed himself gratified. 
“Well, I’ll lead ye over to the motor-boat.” 

Billy Walker groaned stertorously. 

“And we’re not there even yet!” he 
exclaimed, aghast. 

“Oh, putty nigh,” Jake made assurance; 
“only a matter o’ three mile on the lake. We’ll 
git thar in a jiffy, in the Shirt so.” 

“The what?” Saxe questioned. 

“That’s the ornery name old man Aber- 




EVE OF BATTLE 


5 7 


nethey give a perfec’ly good boat,” Jake 
replied, complainingly. “He said as how it 
meant kind o’ lively.” 

“The name must be Scherzo,” Saxe 
explained to the unmusical and bewildered 
Billy Walker; “the motor-boat, you know.” 

But Billy was not appeased. He kept at 
Jake’s side, as the party moved toward the 
landing, a furlong to the east from the station, 
and expressed his sentiments vehemently, 
though not lucidly, so far as the boatman was 
concerned. 

“I’m given to understand,” he said severely 
to the puzzled Jake, “that your craft is not 
merely a plain, slow-going, safe-and-sane- 
Fourth launch, but, on the contrary, one of 
those cantankerous, speed-maniacal contrap¬ 
tions that scoots in diabolical and parabolical 
curves, and squirts water all over the passen¬ 
gers. If so, I think I’ll walk—though I’m not 
fond of walking.” 

Jake seized eagerly on the one intelligible 
phrase in Billy Walker’s bombast. 

“Nary squirt!” he declared, with emphasis. 
“Old man Abernethey, he was ailin’ jest like 
you be, and I learned to nuss the Shirtso keer- 





58 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


ful—mighty keerful, yes, siree!” 

The others, who had overheard, laughed im¬ 
pudently at this naive reference to the invalid¬ 
ism of their friend, whose physical inertia was 
equal to his mental energy. 

At sight of the motor-boat, Roy Morton 
gave critical attention, scanning it with the 
supercilious manner of one versed in the mys¬ 
teries, as, indeed, he was. Unbidden, he 
ensconced himself at the engines, in the seat 
with Jake. Soon, however, his coldly inquiring 
expression softened to radiant satisfaction, as 
he noted the smoothness of the start, the deli¬ 
cate adjustment from speed to speed, the 
rhythm of the perfectly tuned cylinders. Of a 
sudden, as he turned to stare at the wizened 
face of the old man at his side, Roy's eyes 
grew gently luminous; a smile that was tender 
curved the lips above the belligerent chin. He 
knew that Jake loved his engines, knew per¬ 
fectly that the old man fairly doted on them, 
cherished them even as a lover his mistress. 
Because of the sympathy that he, too, had with 
such things, Roy respected the boatman might- 




EVE OF BATTLE 


59 


ily, began then and there to grow fond of the 
brown and shriveled face. 

Billy Walker, for his part, after the first 
few moments of suspense, became convinced 
that his anticipations of disaster were little 
likely to be realized in fact, and thereafter he 
gave himself over to delighted contemplation 
of the wooded shores, which on either side 
sloped gracefully to the water’s edge. David 
Thwing, too, gazed about on the newly budded 
beauty of the wilderness with a content made 
keen by over-long sojourning in the places 
builded by men. It was only Saxe Temple 
himself, alone in the stern chair, who looked 
around with eyes that just then recked naught 
of the scenic loveliness, despite the appeal in 
such vistas to one of his beauty-loving temper¬ 
ament. But his whole interest, now, was cen¬ 
tered on the quest that had brought him to this 
remote region. His roving glance was search¬ 
ing all the stretches of lake and forest wonder- 
ingly, hopefully, fearfully. Here was the place 
in which he must win or lose a fortune, accord¬ 
ing to the decree of the old man’s whimsy. 




60 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


The desire of his dearest dreams surged in 
him, the challenge of ambition, the ideals of 
art. This wealth, once achieved, would give 
freedom to work according to his loftiest aspir¬ 
ations. A sudden fierce resolve burned in him. 
He would succeed, notwithstanding all difficul¬ 
ties in the path. Fate had given him oppor¬ 
tunity : he would wrest from it victory as well. 
His face set itself sternly in lines of strength 
.... and, then, without any warning, the 
Scherzo swung around a densely wooded point 
of the shore that had seemed almost to bar the 
narrow channel, through which they had been 
passing thus far. Now, just before them lay 
broad reaches of placid water, a mile in width 
there at hand, much wider in the distance be¬ 
yond. Low mountains loomed undulant afar, 
whence the descending forests ran to a shore 
that wound hither and yon in innumerable 
inlets, coves and bays, broken often by cliffs. 

Yet, even now, Saxe Temple gave no heed 
to the loveliness of the spectacle. Instead, his 
whole care was fixed on an uncouth, rambling 
structure that blotched a clearing visible along 





EVE OF BATTLE 


61 


the west shore, a mile away. It was the only 
dwelling to be seen anywhere, as far as eye 
could reach. The seeker had no doubt that 
now, at last, he had his first sight of Aber- 
nethey’s cottage—that spot in which his cun¬ 
ning must meet—and master—the cunning of 
a dead man, who had made grim jest with the 
gold he loved. 




CHAPTER V 

THE SEARCH BEGINS 


A N UNWONTED activity prevailed in the 
l miser's cottage. The presence of Saxe 
Temple and his companions brought into the 
isolated dwelling a varied and bustling atmos¬ 
phere, which, at times, came near confusion. 
The one member of the party who permitted 
naught to disturb his tranquillity was Billy 
Walker, and that because of a chronic aversion 
to every form of physical exertion. He con¬ 
tented himself with holding a sort of informal 
court on the porch, sitting at ease with his 
massive frame sprawled in a commodious 
wicker chair. Mrs. West remained with him 
much of the time, while Margaret by turns 
joined them, or moved about here and there 
as an interested observer of the other three 
men, who were already busily searching the 
house. 

On occasion, Margaret and May Thurston 
wandered away together in long strolls by the 
lake shore, or over the hills through the forest. 
By the circumstances of such companionship, 

62 


THE SEARCH BEGINS 


63 


a considerable degree of intimacy was soon 
established between the two girls, which was 
inexpressibly comforting to the secretary. She 
would have delighted to tell this new friend of 
the engagement that existed between herself 
and the engineer, but she had passed her word 
not to do so, and it never occurred to her as 
possible that she should break it. At times, 
Masters joined the girls in their rambles, but 
that avaricious gentleman, though eager to 
press his suit with Margaret could not often 
bear to absent himself from the scene of opera¬ 
tions that had to do with the treasure. So, 
for the most part, he either joined the group 
on the porch, or gave himself over to loiter¬ 
ing hidden in the woods, at a point a few hun¬ 
dred yards to the south, where a thick screen 
of undergrowth effectually offered a barrier 
against observation from the cottage. By such 
espionage, he was sure to be instantly advised 
concerning any discovery of a clue, as it would 
create excitement among those on the piazza. 
He would have preferred to remain constantly 
among the searchers, but this was patently 
impossible. Masters was by no means lacking 
in shrewdness, however great his shortcomings 




64 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


in the way of respect for meum et tuuni, and he 
was both sensitive and sensible enough to know 
that his company was not especially agreeable 
to Temple and his friends in their exploration 
of the house. 

It was, in truth, rather curious to note the 
various opinions held in reference to the engi¬ 
neer by the four men engaged in seeking Aber- 
nethey’s treasure. Masters had been intro¬ 
duced to them by May on the morning after 
their arrival at the cottage, and had shown 
himself as friendly as possible. But, in ac¬ 
cordance with the usual effect he had on men, 
the impression created by him on each of the 
four was distinctly unpleasant. Saxe Temple 
felt an intuitive dislike, which he was at no 
pains to explain. Billy Walker regarded the 
engineer with a mingling of amusement and 
disdain, ill concealed, and he did not scruple 
afterward to describe the visitor as a peculiarly 
obnoxious romantic pirate, with a flamboyant 
veneer of the Quartier Latin . But he refused 
to take the fellow with much seriousness. In 
this respect, he differed from Roy Morton, who 
made it a rule to be uniformly suspicious of all 
things and all persons, and lived up to this rule 




THE SEARCH BEGINS 


65 


with finical fidelity. He immediately charac¬ 
terized the engineer as a completely base and 
designing person, one of whom all decent and 
honest men might well beware. He proved 
his contentions quite to his own satisfaction by 
physiognomy, by phrenology, by chiromancy, 
by the sixth sense and by the fourth dimen¬ 
sion. David Thwing, who was ordinarily a 
kindly soul, made some small effort to combat 
the severity of Roy's strictures, but the phil¬ 
anthropic attempt failed dismally of apprecia¬ 
tion—which result troubled David not at all, 
since his heart was not in the task. 

Ensued a week of feverish activity on the 
part of Saxe and his friends, in which Billy 
Walker was as busy as any, although his toil 
was exclusively mental, while his body 
remained in its customary lethargic condition. 
By day and by night, he devoted himself to 
examination of the problem that confronted 
his friend, and by day and by night the other 
three carried out his every suggestion. Unfor¬ 
tunately, however, for Saxe's hopes of inher¬ 
itance, their first hurried search of the cottage 
resulted in naught save weariness and dismay. 
Of anything in the nature of a clue, they found 




66 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


no least trace. 

Billy Walker delivered the final decree in 
a council held by the four, after dinner on 
the seventh day. It had so chanced that the 
friends were alone together in the chief room 
of the cottage, which was the music-room. 

“I've addled my wits in vain,” Billy 
Walker confessed, dolefully. “Until there 
shall have been an accumulation of new intel¬ 
lectual energy on my part, I shall be able to 
offer you no theory as to the actual hiding- 
place so ingeniously selected by the late 
lamented Mr. Abernethey—to whose ashes, 
peace! While I am thus recuperating, how¬ 
ever, you, my children, shall not be idle— 
oh, by no manner of means. On the con¬ 
trary, you shall be very busy, indeed, after 
the method prescribed by inexorable logic.” 

“Fm beginning to think that a little luck 
just now would help more than a lot of 
logic,” Saxe declared, gloomily. 

“Listen to the oracle, anyhow,” David 
Thwing urged, in his always kindly voice. 
“You see,” he went on whimsically, “Billy is 
a specialist in thinking: he doesn't do any¬ 
thing except think. So, we must respect his 




THE SEARCH BEGINS 


67 


thinking. Otherwise, we could not respect 
our friend at all.” David’s big, protruding 
eyes, magnified by the heavy lenses of his 
eyeglasses, beamed benignantly on his three 
companions. 

The one thus dubiously lauded grunted 
disdainfully. 

“Panegyrics apart,” he resumed, in his 
roughly rumbling tones, “there appears at 
this time but one course of procedure. To 
wit: Tomorrow morning, you must start on 
an exhaustive search of the whole house. 
Hitherto, you have made only a superficial 
examination. This has failed miserably. 
Now, the scrutiny must be made macro¬ 
scopic.” 

There could be no gainsaying the utter¬ 
ance. As the speaker had declared, it was 
the command of the inevitable logic pre¬ 
sented by the situation. The hearers gave 
grumbling assent to the wisdom of the sug¬ 
gestion—with the exception of Roy Morton, 
who, curled lazily in the depths of the morris 
chair, was staring vacantly at the elaborate 
carving of the wainscoting, and smoking an 
especially fat Egyptian cigarette. Now, he 




68 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


suddenly sat upright, and his gaze was 
turned on his companions, who had looked 
up at his abrupt movement. Roy’s eyes were 
hard; his chin was thrust forward, in the 
fashion characteristic of him when the spirit 
of combat flared high, which, to tell the 
truth, was rather often. He spoke with 
apparent seriousness, but Thwing, who had 
been through some adventures of a violent 
sort in his company, noted that a significant 
excess of amiability in his tones, which was 
always to be heard on critical occasions, was 
now wanting. 

“There’s only one simple and sure way to 
success,” Roy declared authoritatively. “We 
must burgle.” 

There were ejaculations of astonishment 
from his curious hearers. 

“It’s this way,” he explained blandly, fix¬ 
ing his steel-blue eyes grimly on the won¬ 
dering Billy Walker. “We must rifle the 
lawyer’s safe. Of course, the lawyer whom 
Abernethey employed has exact instructions 
as to how to come on the treasure. All we 
have to do, then, is to break into his office, 
carrying an oxy-acetylene blow-pipe, cut 




THE SEARCH BEGINS 


69 


open the safe, find the secret instructions, 
copy them off, and afterward duly retrieve 
the gold at our leisure; besides,” he con¬ 
cluded, with great complacency, “I know a 
first-class safe-blower, to help us on the job. 
I did him a favor once. He'll be glad to do 
me a kindness, in turn.” 

A chorus of protests came from Saxe and 
Billy, to which, at last, with much apparent 
reluctance, Roy yielded, and definitely, 
though sulkily, withdrew his ingenious pred¬ 
atory plan. But David, the while, chuckled 
contentedly, for he was apt at a jest—and, 
too, he had known Roy more closely than 
had the other two. 

Since the working schedule had been thus 
happily determined on the side of law and 
order, the friends gave themselves over to 
an interval of social relaxation for the 
remainder of the evening, during which 
period, at the suggestion of David, the sub¬ 
ject of the treasure was taboo. Roy, who 
was fond of music, and had himself once 
possessed no mean measure of skill on the 
violoncello, now besought Saxe to try the 
piano, for hitherto their whole attention had 





70 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


been given to the business in hand, to the 
exclusion of all else. David, also, who doted 
on music, though' without any technical 
training, added his entreaties. Billy Walker, 
who esteemed music about as highly as a 
cat does water, was complacent enough not 
to protest, which was the utmost that might 
be expected of him under the circumstances. 
Saxe went to the piano very willingly, for he 
was in a mood of nervous tension that 
craved the emotional relaxation of harmony. 

Saxe played with a good degree of excel¬ 
lence in his technique, although he was far 
from being such a master of the instrument 
as had been the dead owner. But the essen¬ 
tial charm of the younger man’s interpreta¬ 
tion lay in the delicate truth’ of his sym¬ 
pathy. His intelligent sensitiveness seemed, 
indeed, catholic in its scope. Whether he 
toyed daintily with a graceful appoggiatura 
from Chopin, or crashed an astonishing dis¬ 
sonance from Strauss, he equally felt and 
revealed the emotion that had been in the 
composer’s soul. Hardly had he begun, 
when Mrs. West entered from the porch, 
and after her came Margaret. Presently, 






THE SEARCH BEGINS 


71 


May made her appearance, with Masters at 
her side. Only Jake and his wife, in the 
kitchen, remained unattracted. They had 
already heard from their late master suffi¬ 
cient music to last them a lifetime. The 
audience was sympathetic enough to encour¬ 
age the player, and Saxe remained at the 
piano for a long time, to the satisfaction of 
all his hearers—even that of Billy Walker, 
who was shamelessly dozing. 

Finally, the musician's attention, during a 
pause, was attracted to a stack of music, 
which was lying on top of a cabinet, at the 
right of the piano. He rose, and, going to 
it, began glancing over the sheets. His eyes 
lighted with admiration as he noted the 
various compositions in the collection. In 
this examination of the music, he realized, 
as he had not done hitherto, the virtuosity 
of that dead miser who had made him the 
possible heir to wealth. For here was naught 
save the most worthy in the world of musical 
art. There was not a single number of the 
many assembled that was not a masterpiece 
of its kind. In its entirety, the series pre¬ 
sented the very highest forms of musical 





72 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


expression, the supreme achievement, both 
intellectual and emotional, in the art. For 
the first time, Saxe felt a gust of tenderness 
toward the lonely old man, for the sake of 
their brotherhood in a great love. And, 
then, at the very bottom of the heap, Saxe 
came on a single sheet, which drew his par¬ 
ticular attention. 

The page showed a few measures written 
in manuscript. This fact alone was suffi¬ 
cient to make the sheet distinctive in the 
collection, inasmuch as it was solitary of its 
sort. Every other composition was from 
editions by the best publishers. With his 
newly-aroused interest in Abernethey, it 
befell that Saxe was pleased thus to come 
on a composition which, he made sure, must 
have been from the pen of Abernethey him¬ 
self. Yet, as he scanned the few bars, the 
young man experienced a feeling of vivid 
disappointment, for the work was by no pos¬ 
sibility of a kind to compel particular admira¬ 
tion; so, at least, it seemed to him just then. 
With a sense of disillusionment concerning 
the quality of the dead miser’s genius, Saxe 
carried the sheet of music to the piano, 




THE SEARCH BEGINS 


73 


where he placed it on the rack, then began 
to play. As the first chord sounded, May 
Thurston, seated in a chair near the door, 
made a movement of surprise. Afterward, 
as she rested quietly in her place, there lay 
on her face a look of melancholy that was 
very near dejection. 

The music that Saxe played was this: 


Largo 






—N, ^ 



m — r 9 —r 

b-tt£ 





mW= 

mm.*= 










































































74 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


Thus, Saxe Temple played the few simple 
phrases, over which the old miser had lin¬ 
gered so long one desolate night. But, now, 
a vast difference appeared in the manner 
with which the music was sped. Abernethey 
had rendered the composition with astonish¬ 
ing intensity of emotion. He had inter¬ 
preted the harsh measures with exquisite, 
though melancholy, tenderness; he had 
clanged them forth with the spirit of frantic 
appeal, with hot passion in the uncouth 
numbers, with crass, savage abandonment— 
again, with the superimposing of mighty 
harmonies, vast, massive, dignified. Now, 
the genius was gone from the reading. Saxe 
Temple felt no least degree of sympathy for 
this crude, unpleasant fragment. On the 
contrary, the piece affected him only dis¬ 
agreeably. To his musical sense, this crea¬ 
tion by the miser was peculiarly offensive. 
Yet, through some subliminal channel, the 
stark sequence of the rhythm laid thrall on 
him, so that he ran over the score not once, 
but many times. Nevertheless, he always 
set the music forth' nakedly, unadorned by 
any graces of variety in the interpretation, 





THE SEARCH BEGINS 


75 


undraped by ingenious Harmonies. He 
played merely the written notes, played 
them with precision—reluctantly; and, when 
finally, he had made an end, he still sat on 
at the piano, staring toward the written 
page, as. one vaguely trouble by a mystery. 

It was May Thurston who broke the little 
interval of silence that followed after the 
music ended: 

“I’ve heard that before, Mr. Temple,” she 
said; “many, many times.” 

Saxe whirled on the piano stool to face 
the girl. 

“Yes,” he said, and there was a note of 
bewilderment in his voice; “I should imagine 
so. As it is in manuscript, it was probably 
composed by Mr. Abernethey himself. But 
I must say that I’m greatly disappointed in 
it. I can’t discover any particular merit in 
it. You know, he left me all his manu- 
scripts. I’ve had no time to look at them, 
however, as they only arrived the day we 
left New York. So, I was especially inter¬ 
ested in this, to learn something of him, and 
this teaches me nothing at all concerning 
him, or, if it does—” He broke off, unwilling 




76 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


to voice his candid judgment of the manu¬ 
script’s merits. He turned to Roy, who 
lounged in a window seat, smoking the 
inevitable cigarette. “What did you think 
of it?” he demanded. 

“Perfectly ghastly!” came the sententious 
answer. “I was wondering what on earth 
you were up to—and hoping for the best. 
Yes, ghastly!” 

May Thurston laughed, but there was 
little merriment in her notes. 

“That’s exactly what it is—ghastly!” 
She shuddered slightly, and glanced across 
the room toward Margaret, as if in quest 
of sympathy. “It is ghastly. It got on my 
nerves frightfully. Mr. Abernethey was 
forever playing it, along at the last—and I 
used to enjoy his playing so, too! I love 
music, and he was simply wonderful. I’ve 
heard most of the great players, and it seems 
to me that he was as good as any of them. 
His technique was magnificent. He told me 
once that, since many years, he had had an 
absolute mastery of the instrument physi¬ 
cally. He had only to think and to feel the 
spirit of the music. He said that the sympa- 





THE SEARCH BEGINS 


77 


thetic response of his body was wholly auto¬ 
matic.” 

“That is the ideal, of course,” Saxe agreed, 
with’ a sigh. “I only wish that I had attained 
to it myself! Perhaps, he weakened a bit at 
the last—when he did this, you know?” He 
looked at May inquiringly, as he made the 
suggestion. 

But the girl shook her head, resolutely. 

“No!” she said, with an air of finality. 
“Up to the very day of his death', there was 
no breaking down of Mr. Abernethey’s mind. 
Yet, he was always playing that piece at the 
last. Only, he played it in a thousand ways 
—never twice alike—and always ghastly!” 
Again the girl shuddered slightly. 

“That’s curious,” Saxe said. He swung 
about on the piano-stool, and sat staring 
somberly at the written page. 

Billy .Walker innocently cleared the 
atmosphere. He sat erect, rubbing his eyes 
brazenly. 

“Now, I liked that piece,” he declared, 
genially. “It’s got some swing to it, some 
go—yes, rather! Best thing you’ve played, 
if anybody asks me.” 




78 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


“Nobody did,” Roy retorted, sourly. 

As a matter of fact, Billy Walker, though 
totally tone-deaf, had been granted a con¬ 
siderable capacity for the enjoyment of 
rhythm. The composition that distressed 
May Thurston by its ghastliness had cheered 
him with the steady drumming of its chords; 
the law of compensation works in curious 
ways. 




CHAPTER VI 

THE SIXTH SENSE 

W HAT I don't like about women,” 
exclaimed Roy Morton, with an 
inflection of disgust, “is the kind of men they 
like/' 

It was the morning of another day, and 
the exhaustive search commanded by Billy 
Walker as the mouthpiece of inexorable 
logic had begun. The voice of the oracle 
could at this moment be heard from the 
porch, where he was engaged in pleasant 
conversation with Mrs. West, while his three 
friends were busy with the actual work of 
investigation. They were in the small room 
opening off the hall, on the ground floor, 
which had been used by the late owner of 
the cottage as a sort of office. There, he 
had kept all of his business papers—at least 
as far as the knowledge of his secretary 
went. A flat-top desk in the center of the 
room contained a number of drawers, and 
in one corner stood a small iron safe. Under 
the terms of the will, every freedom was 


80 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


accorded to the searchers, and now safe and 
drawers had been opened for their conveni¬ 
ence by May Thurston, who thus followed 
the instructions she had received from the 
lawyer. At the moment when Roy made 
his rather bitter remark concerning the 
nature of womankind, he had just observed,, 
through a window that looked out to the 
south, a trio strolling along the lake shore. 
The three were Margaret, May and the 
ubiquitous Masters. It was the presence of 
the engineer that had aroused the indigna¬ 
tion of Roy, and had caused him thus cyni¬ 
cally to stigmatize feminine indiscretion in 
friendship. Himself a devotee of the fair sex, 
though shockingly irresponsible as an eligi¬ 
ble bachelor, it irked him mightily that the 
requirements of his present relation to Saxe 
were such as to hold him there, poring over 
a motley of sordid bills, receipts, and other 
financial memoranda, the while a scoun¬ 
drelly nincompoop (so he secretly termed the 
engineer) strutted abroad with two charm¬ 
ing girls. 

David laughed at the disgust in his friend’s 
voice, for he, too, had observed the passing 




THE SIXTH SENSE 


81 


of the three, and he understood perfectly the 
jealousy that underlay Roy’s displeasure in 
the situation. He paused in his task of con¬ 
ning the year’s milk bills of one Eleazer 
Sneddy, lighted a cigarette, and inhaled the 
fumes with a sigh of deep gratification. 

“I wouldn’t mind being in his place myself, 
Roy,” he said, placidly. 

The grumbler scowled at his too penetrant 
crony. Saxe looked up from a sheet of fools¬ 
cap, covered in the minute handwriting of 
the miser with long columns of figures by 
which were set forth details of the expendi¬ 
tures for a month in the matter of postage. 
He, too, paused, welcoming any diversion 
from the uncongenial labor, and lighted a 
cigarette with manifest relief. 

“Be in whose place, Dave?” he questioned, 

idly. 

Roy attempted a distraction from the 
topic. 

“Huh!” he sneered. “This adventure isn’t 
what it’s been cracked up to be—no gore, no 
gold, no anything, except a parcel of musty 
papers. I have just finished the thrilling 
items of tenpenny nails in the matter of 




82 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


shingling the cottage; I suppose that poor 
old miser had a spasm every time he paid 
for a pound of them. In fact, I’m sure of it, 
because I get psychosympathetically those 
same spasms in going over the charges/’ 

“Psychosympathetically is good,” David 
generously declared. Then, he turned to 
Saxe. “Roy just saw Masters out for a walk 
with the girls, and it stirred him to envy, 
naturally enough. It did me, too, for there 
are certainly two unusually nice girls.” 

Roy’s gloomy face lighted in an instant, 
marvelously. His eyes grew very blue and 
soft, his lips curved in the smile that made 
all women like him. 

“Peaches!” he ejaculated, with candid 
enthusiasm. “But what a revelation it was 
when little Miss Thurston took off her spec¬ 
tacles. A demure angel appeared where 
before had been a dumpy New England 
schoolmarm .... I have discovered the 
important fact that spectacles on a short 
woman take exactly two inches from her 
height.” 

“Have you informed Miss Thurston of 
your interesting discovery?” David inquired. 




THE SIXTH SENSE 


83 


“Not yet,” was the answer; “but I shall, 
at the first opportunity. It's a crime for any 
woman not to be as beautiful as she possibly 
can, every moment of her life. Think of the 
wholesome happiness that loveliness gives to 
every observer!” 

“Except the other women,” Saxe sug¬ 
gested. 

Roy disdained the interruption: 

“And yet,” he continued, energetically, 
“there are women, good women, mind you, 
who give away soup, but look like frumps, 
and actually believe that they are doing their 
duty. Why, sirs, they minister to the bellies 
of a dozen, perhaps, while they shock the 
finest sensibilities of the souls of a thousand 
who have to look at 'em. And they believe 
that they have done their duty. It’s shame¬ 
ful. Are bellies more than souls?” 

The thoughts of Saxe were busy with the 
other of the two girls, Margaret West; and 
now he spoke of her, reverting to Roy's 
diatribe concerning the chief duty of women. 

“Margaret West certainly fulfills all her 
obligation,” he observed. There was a 
quality of repressed admiration in his voice, 




84 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


which set the observant David to thinking. 
“She is beautiful at all times. It’s a delight 
to look at her.” 

The others nodded agreement, but, in the 
same moment, Roy grinned sardonically. 

“Beware!” he advised, mockingly. 
“Remember that that girl, so young and 
seemingly so innocent, is your deadly enemy. 
Don’t let the spell of her loveliness lull you 
into a fancied security, in which you may be 
caught off guard. Again, I bid you beware.” 

“What on earth are you raving about?” 
Saxe demanded, in genuine astonishment, 
“but ' you’re merely joking, of course— 
though I must say that I don’t exactly see 
the humor.” 

“Perhaps my language was a trifle extrava¬ 
gant,” Roy conceded; “but as to the essential 
fact, why, I stand by what I said. Margaret 
West is, naturally, your enemy. There can’t 
be a shadow of doubt as to that.” 

“Margaret West my enemy!” the incredu¬ 
lous Saxe repeated, in a voice that was indig¬ 
nant. “Why, man, the idea’s absurd.” 

Roy wagged his head, sapiently. 

“Human nature is human nature,” he 




THE SIXTH SENSE 


85 


vouchsafed. “Money is power. There are 
a dozen truisms that I might utter very 
aptly at this present juncture, but I refrain. 
It so happens, however, that, in the event 
of your failing to discover the hiding-place 
of the gold so artfully concealed by the late 
lamented, this same Margaret West will fall 
heiress to exactly one-half of that gold. 
Therefore, inevitably, she is your enemy. 
Such is the law of our civilization, in which 
gold plays the vital part.” 

Saxe was frowning. He turned to David, 
with open impatience. 

“Did you ever hear the like of that non¬ 
sense?” he demanded. 

David smoked thoughtfully, and paused 
for a few seconds before he answered. Then, 
he smiled his usual kindly smile, as he spoke 
decisively: 

“Of course, it does seem a bit preposter¬ 
ous, first off,” he admitted. “But, you see, 
the common facts of experience lend color 
to Roy’s argument. Miss West is a charm¬ 
ing girl, and doesn’t seem a bit the sordid, 
avaricious type, and yet—well, you never can 
tell. Women are kittle cattle, and there’s a 




86 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


pot of money concerned. Fm thinking she 
wouldn't be quite plain human, if she didn’t 
want you to fail. Of course she does—she 
must—yes, Roy is right enough, Miss West 
is your natural enemy.” 

Saxe was silenced, and, in a manner of 
speaking, convinced as well. He was forced 
to admit the plausibility of the reasoning 
of his friends, although his feeling was still 
bitterly opposed to any admission that their 
contention was just in this particular 
instance. It occurred to him that, were the 
case reversed, he would undoubtedly desire 
the seeker’s discomfiture with all his Heart, 
would, in fine, regard the seeker as his 
natural enemy—just as Roy had designated 
Margaret West to be his natural enemy. 
Nevertheless, something within him forbade 
that he should esteem this girl as one hostile 
to himself. The color in Saxe’s cheeks 
deepened a little. Of a sudden, it was borne 
in on his consciousness that there existed a 
most cogent reason why he could not regard 
Margaret West as an enemy. It was because 
he so earnestly desired her as a friend. In 
that instant of illumination, he realized that 




THE SIXTH SENSE 


87 


never before in his life had he longed for 
the friendship of woman as now he yearned 
for that of Margaret West. A strange con¬ 
fusion fell on him. He did not quite under¬ 
stand the emotion that welled in his spirit; 
it was something new to his experience, 
something subtle, bafflingly elusive—and very, 
very sweet. 

Saxe was recalled to the business of the 
moment by the pained voice of Roy: 

“Digging the drain cost six dollars and 
ninety-eight cents.” 

“Sounds like a department store,” was 
David’s amused comment. “I learn that, on 
the sixteenth of last January, nine cents was 
expended in the purchase of the succulent 
onion.” 

Roy groaned with dismal heartiness. 

“I embark on an adventure. I crave 
adventure, I seek it in far places and near, 
wherefore I come hither with my bold com¬ 
panions, a-hunting a chest of gold. Forth¬ 
with, I become an uncertified private 
accountant. What hideous degradation! I 
tell you, Saxe, Pm mighty sick of this job. 
I’d just as lief be assistant bookkeeper in a 





88 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


tannery.” 

“Why tannery?” David inquired. He 
pushed the heap of papers aside, and lighted 
another cigarette, highly pleased with the 
diversion. 

“Because a tannery happened to be the 
most disagreeable place I could think of at 
the moment,” was the simple explanation. 
“Smells, you know.” 

“Yes, I know,” David admitted. His 
jagged nose wrinkled violently, as memory 
smote his olfactory nerves. 

Saxe seized on a topic that promised some 
measure of distraction from his crowding 
thoughts: 

“Myself, I don't think much of this 
method.” He waved a hand contemptuously 
toward the litter of papers on the desk before 
them. “It seems to me that we're just losing 
time in wading through all this trash. But 
what shall we do, instead? This is a part 
of the exhaustive search.” 

Roy sprang up with an exclamation of im¬ 
patience. 

“No Christian gentleman, not even a miser, 
would concoct the diabolical idea of preserving 





THE SIXTH SENSE 


89 


a clue to his gold pots amid trash of this sort; 
besides, I have a presentiment/’ 

“Oh, a presentiment!” There was a note of 
scoffing in Saxe’s voice. 

But David, in the years since their gradua¬ 
tion, had journeyed with Roy through strange 
places, and so had come to know the whimsical 
nature intimately, with a consequent respect 
for some seemingly fantastic idiosyncracies. 
Now, he stared at his friend expectantly, with 
no hint of derision in the look. 

Roy smiled quizzically, as he met David’s 
earnestly inquiring gaze: 

“You’re not so skeptical, eh, Dave?” he said. 

David smiled wryly, and shook his head. In 
his gentle, goggling eyes was reminiscence. 

“It’s borne in on my consciousness,” Roy 
continued, rather pedantically, “that the clue 
isn’t here, and it’s not to be found by tedious, 
disgusting ransacking of scraps, like these 
we’ve been wasting our time on here, but, on 
the contrary, will be revealed to us in some 
much more curious manner. In fact, I feel 
that we shall succeed, but that our success will 
come in an apparently chance suggestion from 
some one of us, which will really be in the 





90 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


nature of an inspiration. You see, Dave,” he 
concluded, staring at the other intently, “the 
idea of the hiding-place is well compacted as a 
thought-form, for the old man was thinking 
of his treasure and its concealment hour after 
hour, day after day. The influence is here, 
ready to affect anyone sensitive enough to be 
susceptible to such vibration. For my part, 
I’m sure some one of us will presently become 
obsessed by some seemingly absurd idea—an 
idea, in all likelihood, quite irrational—that 
idea will lead us to victory, and to the Aber- 
nethey gold.” 

Saxe laughed, a bit sourly. Roy’s psychic 
gasconading would have been more amusing 
with another theme. It seemed, in truth, 
rather heartless jesting, when a fortune was 
the issue. To suggest that wealth must await 
the vagaries of a thought-form’s impact on 
somebody’s consciousness, which wouldn’t 
know even what had hit it! Of all preposter¬ 
ous things! It was brutal, too. 

David sprang to his feet, his big, brown eyes 
shining alertly through the eyeglasses. 

“Praise be!” he cried. Instantly, thereafter, 
he proceeded to the execution of a clog-dance, 




THE SIXTH SENSE 


91 


which he performed with astonishing precision 
and swiftness, while Roy clapped the rhythm 
with foot and hands. 

Saxe looked on in unconcealed disgust. At 
the conclusion of the pas seul, he lifted his 
voice in complaint: 

“Well, of all the heartless, unsympathetic 
wretches! If it was your money, you might 
not feel so devilishly tickled.” He glared at 
the unabashed two accusingly. 

David strode forward, and clapped his 
friend on the back. 

“Hold your hosses!” he cried. A crisp note 
of authority was in his voice. “Why, old fel¬ 
low, this is just what I’ve been waiting for.” 

“Indeed!” Saxe exclaimed, with sarcasm. 
Then, he shrugged his shoulders resignedly. 
He found himself fairly bemused by this mad¬ 
ness on the part of his friends. 

“It’s this way,” David went on. His manner 
proved that, however extravagant in his cre¬ 
dulity, he was quite sincere. “I’ve been about 
more than a bit with Roy, and in some infer¬ 
nally tough places, too, let me tell you.” Saxe 
nodded assent. “Well, the fact of the matter 
is simply this: From experience, Fve learned 




92 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


that, when Roy has a hunch, it goes—that's all. 
He has sensed things, as he calls it, and our 
acting on the knowledge we got in that way 
has saved our lives—more than once—so, 
here, I've been waiting for his sixth sense to 
get busy, and it has, at last. I was beginning to 
get discouraged. Now, everything’s all right. 
Roy’s got his hunch.” 

Before Saxe could voice utter disbelief in a 
trust so fantastic, he was interrupted by Roy 
himself. That intermittent seer, who had been 
smoking with an expression of infantile con¬ 
tentment on his face, sprang lithely and noise¬ 
lessly to his feet. While Saxe and David 
stared curiously, he leaned close to them, and 
whispered: 

“There’s somebody listening. Look out of 
the window, Saxe.” 

Roy had been sitting for some time with his 
back to the one window in the room, while the 
other two had been facing it. There had come 
no sound from without. Now, instinctively 
obedient to the command, Saxe darted to the 
window, which was open, and thrust out his 
head. Close to the wall of the cottage, within 
a yard of him, stood Hartley Masters in an at- 




THE SIXTH SENSE 


93 


titude of absorbed attention. 

Without attracting the notice of the eaves¬ 
dropper, Saxe drew back, and turned to his 
friends. He nodded affirmation of Roy’s sur¬ 
mise. In the gaze with which he scrutinized 
the amateur psychic, there was a curious com¬ 
mingling of bewilderment, respect and chagrin. 

David threw back his head, and laughed joy¬ 
ously, scorning the listener, and spoke his 
mind: 

“When Roy gets a hunch—watch out!” 





CHAPTER VII 

HAPHAZARD QUESTING 


M ASTERS, who was not minded to let the 
value of a small weekly stipend stand 
between him and the possession of riches, had 
now abandoned even the pretense of work. He 
let it be known, casually, at the cottage that he 
was temporarily idle, while awaiting orders. 
As a matter of fact, he was awaiting the dis¬ 
missal that now could not be long delayed. 
To May, however, he confessed the truth, that 
he had chosen to sacrifice a paltry certainty 
for the sake of possible wealth. She had pro¬ 
tested against the recklessness of his conduct, 
but her pleas had fallen on deaf ears. Masters 
went his way of crafty greed without a mo¬ 
ment’s faltering. He had exulted on learning 
from the conversation overheard among the 
three friends that the systematized search was 
to be abandoned in favor of a foolish fancy— 
as he deemed it. While Saxe Temple and his 
companions loitered in expectation of some 
psychic guidance, Masters would give himself 
to the quest with an energy that must win him 

94 


HAPHAZARD QUESTING 


95 


the victory. It was in a very cheerful frame 
of mind that he betook himself to the cottage 
on the following morning. Upon his arrival, 
however, he was at once confronted with a new 
phase of the situation, which filled him with 
rage. 

The engineer found Mrs. West and Billy 
Walker chatting cozily on the porch, as usual. 
Mrs. West beamed kindly in her greeting, for 
she enjoyed the breezy manner of this hand¬ 
some young man. Billy merely grunted. To 
judge from the expression of his face, the 
utterance were better inarticulate. 

Masters leaned his long length against a pil¬ 
lar at the head of the flight of steps, and joined 
genially in the conversation for a few minutes, 
despite the manifest grumpiness of Billy 
Walker, who, never a courtier, was at no pains 
to conceal his distaste for the engineer's 
society. Mrs. West, however, was amiability 
itself, and Masters was minded to ignore the 
superciliousness of the other man's manner, 
though fully conscious of it. He felt that, 
under the circumstances, he could ill afford to 
be too finical over such a trifle, notwithstand¬ 
ing the irritation to his vanity. So he rolled a 





96 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


cigarette from the chip tobacco and wheat- 
straw paper which he affected, and chatted 
jauntily with Mrs. West. When he deemed 
that a sufficient interval had elapsed, the 
engineer prepared the way to continue his 
delayed search of the cottage: 

‘Til just take a look inside. Miss Thurston 
promised me a book.” 

Forthwith, he reprobated himself for having 
employed this particular ruse, for Mrs. West 
said: 

“Miss Thurston isn't in the cottage, Mr. 
Masters. You will find her down at the boat¬ 
house.” 

Masters thanked her with his most winning 
smile, and strolled away toward the lake. Mrs. 
West looked after him with a femininely 
appreciative smile. 

“What a delightful gentleman Mr. Masters 
is!” she remarked innocently to Billy; by way 
of answer, there came a rumbling, luckily 
again quite inarticulate. 

Forced thus by his own error to postpone 
the anticipated investigation, Masters was in 
no pleasant mood as he made his way to the 
boat-house, with the intention of venting his 




HAPHAZARD QUESTING 


97 


spite on the girl who loved him. But even this 
relief was not to be vouchsafed him yet. On 
the contrary, his displeasure was swiftly to 
become wrath, venomed by alarm; for, as he 
drew near the boat-house, he heard a chorus 
of merry voices. Instantly, he realized that 
the other men were here where he had expected 
to find only May, and possibly Miss West. Fury 
mounted high at the thought. A fierce, unrea¬ 
soning jealousy bit at him. So great was his 
emotion under these confederate causes that, 
for once, he forgot discretion, and passed with 
hasty steps around the boat-house, totally heed¬ 
less of the distraught expression on his usually 
debonair countenance. 

As the engineer rounded the corner, a scowl 
bent his brows at sight of the scene before him. 
The summer morning was of bland sun and 
gentle airs to set the care-free in a mood for 
lazy delights. The group of four, it was plain, 
had yielded to the soft seduction of the hour, 
for their faces were radiant. Roy Morton was 
sitting, in a boyish attitude, on the top of a 
snubbing post, about which his long legs were 
twined for security's sake, while May Thurs¬ 
ton cuddled at his feet, her face uplifted, her 




98 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


eyes rapt, as she listened to some tale told from 
the book of his adventures. The spectacle 
infuriated Masters, and new fuel fed the flame 
as his eyes fell on the other two. These had 
their backs to the newcomer, who approached 
immediately behind them. Margaret sat at 
the edge of the dock, leaning against a post, 
in a posture of perfect comfort peculiarly 
exasperating to the observer. A little to the 
right, and so placed as to face the girl, Saxe 
sat, with his feet folded under him like a Turk. 
Masters noted, even in this gusty moment, that 
his rival was an especially good-looking young 
man, of the shaven, clean-cut type most 
esteemed by the contemporary illustrator. The 
engineer appreciated the type of which he him¬ 
self was the exemplar, and appreciated it in¬ 
deed at its full worth, but, having a fair degree 
of intelligence, he knew that women admired 
also the vigorous, wholesome and cultured man, 
of the kind there before him. Though he had 
not the least fear for his own prowess where 
the hearts of women were concerned, he could 
not disguise from himself the fact that here 
was one who might easily prove a dangerous 
rival were the opportunity given. 





HAPHAZARD QUESTING 


99 


Saxe had just done with explaining to Miss 
West the reason for the new era of idleness, 
which the day had inaugurated for himself and 
his two companions. With Billy Walker, the 
era was merely continued. 

It must be confessed that Saxe had cast a 
reconnoitering glance toward Roy before 
beginning his recital, and that he held his voice 
lowered throughout the telling. He knew that 
this confidence to the girl, whom, to a certain 
extent, at least, the others distrusted, might be 
deemed by them the height of folly. But he 
was past respecting their opinions in aught 
that concerned her and him. So, he told her 
freely of the decision to abandon systematic 
search, in favor of a recondite dependence 
upon occult inspiration. Margaret’s interest 
in the narrative was of the sincerest, and it 
delighted him. Her manner of receiving the 
information was proof enough to his mind that 
she harbored no least desire for his failure in 
this undertaking. His heart was in a glow of 
happiness, as she bent a little toward him, her 
face all eagerness, her limpid eyes dazzlingly 
blue in the brilliant light. She met his gaze 
squarely, as she voiced her protest against the 




100 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


course adopted: 

“Oh, but, Mr. Temple, the time’s so short— 
less than three weeks now—it isn’t safe!” 

The two were in this attitude of absorbed 
intimacy when Masters’ glance fell upon them. 
The evident intensity of their interest in each 

a? 

other capped the climax of his rage. He strode 
forward, with a sneer arching the heavy mus¬ 
tache. At the sound of his steps, the group 
looked up, and, in varying fashion, each of the 
four showed unmistakable signs of dissatisfac¬ 
tion at this interruption of the conversation. 
Masters so far forgot his manners as to make 
no response to the rather curt nods with which 
the two men greeted him. Instead, he halted 
abruptly, and stared, glowering, at Margaret 
and Saxe. After the first moment of astonish¬ 
ment at the engineer’s discourteous manner, 
Saxe’s expression of animation died out sud¬ 
denly, to be replaced by a set severity that au¬ 
gured ill for him who should challenge it. Roy’s 
jaw shot out a little, and the veil dropped over 
his eyes, which, a moment before, had been 
mild and deep. Margaret could only regard 
the malevolent face of Masters with sheer 
amazement, as his wrathful eyes met hers. 




HAPHAZARD QUESTING 


101 


It was May who saved the situation. She 
sprang to her feet with a little cry, which 
might have been of pleasure or of pain. With 
the intuition of a loving woman, she seized 
instantly on the fact that something had 
thrown her lover from his customary poise. 
Without a particle of hesitation, she employed 
the first ruse suggested by her woman’s wit: 

“Oh, you did come, after all—in spite of 
that horrid tooth!” 

She had no least idea as to the cause that 
had put the man in this tempestuous temper, 
but she realized the necessity of restoring him 
to some measure of self-control ere he should 
commit himself hopelessly by a violent out¬ 
break. The fiction concerning the tooth rose 
to her lips without conscious volition on her 
part, the grimace with which Masters faced 
her, though merely a physical symbol of fury, 
might well have had its origin in a spasm of 
pain. 

As he met May’s dismayed and imploring 
eyes, sanity rushed back on the engineer. By a 
stern effort, he fought back the flooding wrath. 
His face worked a little, then settled into a 
grim repose. While the others waited in 




102 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


silence for the outcome, he suddenly smiled, 
crookedly. 

“I had a frightful twinge while I was com¬ 
ing through the woods, but that didn’t matter 
so much, because I was alone, and could make 
faces, and say just what I wanted to. But I 
do think it was unkind of fate to visit the worst 
twinge of a jumping toothache on me at the 
very instant when I stepped into the presence 
of company; forgive me the face I made, 
please.” His big eyes were shining gently now, 
where before they had been blazing. His 
demeanor was convincing to the unsuspicious 
Margaret, who, having once experienced a 
jumping toothache, was prepared to accept it 
as full justification for any desperate deed. Of 
the others, May felt a profound relief in find¬ 
ing that he had so swiftly made use of her 
offered help, and, for the moment, this satis¬ 
faction contented her; Roy adjusted his jaw 
in a less-belligerent fashion, as contempt took 
the place of anger; Saxe found himself smil¬ 
ing, genuinely amused over the fancy of so 
piratical-seeming a person in the throes of 
toothache. Neither of the men, however, had 
the slightest doubt that May had offered an 




HAPHAZARD QUESTING 


103 


ingenious excuse to account for the engineer’s 
savage manner; and forthwith, Saxe and Roy 
began to wonder mightily as to what, in fact, 
had occurred to destroy so completely the ordi- 
nary suavity of this young gentleman whom 
they cordially detested. 

Mrs. West sent her servant, Chris, in quest 
of Margaret, and, soon afterward, May and 
Masters also went to the cottage, without trou¬ 
bling much for an excuse, so that the two 
friends were left alone together on the dock. 
But, before they had time to voice their com¬ 
mon astonishment over the scene that had just 
passed, they were confronted by Jake, who, as 
they looked up at his approach, bobbed his head 
at them, ana winked with a fine air of mystery. 
When he spoke, he addressed himself directly 
to Roy, for the love each of them bore to nice¬ 
ties of mechanism sealed their sympathy. 

“Well, what’s new, Jake?” Roy demanded, 
amiably. 

Another series of bobbings and winks 
emphasized the importance of the forthcoming 
communication. Then, finally, he spoke in a 
husky whisper, for secrecy’s sake: 

“Thought I’d look in on ye, and tell ye I got 




104 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


an idee.” 

“Capital, Jake!” Roy’s tone was distinctly 
encouraging. “What’s it all about?” 

“It’s this way,” Jake began, with manifest 
pride in the importance of the coming revela¬ 
tion. “You see, I know somethin’ ’bout the 
house up thar—” he nodded over his shoulder 
in the direction of the cottage—“that you 
chaps don’t. That’s what!” 

At this preamble, Saxe, who had been giv¬ 
ing only desultory attention to the old man, 
quickly ceased looking out over the lake, and 
gave ear to what the boatman was saying, 
while Roy, too, displayed a new interest. Jake 
was plainly gratified by the effect he had 
wrought on his hearers, and he proceeded with 
a note of pride in his voice. 

“That’s one thing ’bout that-thar cottage 
that you ain’t onto, and, thinkin’ as how you 
wa’n’t likely to be, I says to myself, says I, I’ll 
jest put ’em wise, seein’ as how ye come, to a 
kind o’ standstill, as it were.” 

“Thanks, Jake,” Roy said. “We surely need 
any help we can get at this stage of the game. 
Go ahead.” 

The cottage was an uncouth structure. It 




HAPHAZARD QUESTING 


105 


had originally been a story-and-a-half build¬ 
ing, and to this Abernethey had added a sort of 
wing to make the music-room, and eventually 
this portion had become the principal bulk of 
the edifice, for domestic offices had been joined 
to it, and a second story set above, in which 
were a number of bedrooms. It was in refer¬ 
ence to this second story on the wing that Jake 
now came with tidings for the treasure-seek¬ 
ers. 

“Si Hatch did that-thar job,” he said,.with 
a wheezy chuckle of amused reminiscence. “Si 
means well, but, ’tween you and me and the 
lamp-post, he ain't wuth shucks as a carpenter 
and j’iner—no, siree! Well, bein’ a cussed 
fool, Si misca’c’lated somehow, and left ’bout 
two-fut space at the forrerd end ’tween the 
outside wall and the lath to that side o’ the bed¬ 
room. I s’posed, o’ course, the old man’d be 
madder’n a hornet, but he only jest grinned 
some, and says to me, says he, it’ll save that 
much floorin’ for the bedroom, yes, I snummy, 
he did! Mighty clus, the old man was.” Jake 
paused, and regarded the listeners with merrily 
twinkling eyes. “Might so be as the gold’s in 
thar,” he concluded. “O’ course, ’tain’t likely, 




106 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


but it might so be.” He stood silent, awaiting 
comment. 

“We’re tremendously obliged, Jake,” Roy 
declared promptly; and Saxe added a phrase 
of appreciation. 

“Do we have to tear the house down to get 
into the space?” Roy continued. 

Jake shook his head vehemently. 

“Not a bit on it,” he declared; and he forth¬ 
with gave vent to another chuckling series of 
explosions. 

“You see, the old man was clus, as I said. 
That’s right, he was gorrammed clus—meanin’ 
no disrespect. You know that-thar closet in 
the front hall upstairs, by the bedroom door. 
Well, the old man said they wa’n’t no earthly 
use o’ wastin’ good timber puttin’ a back to 
that closet, with plasterin’ and all. So, he 
jest had paper put up. Y r ou break away the 
paper, and then you can sidle right in ’tween 
the outside wall and the lath o’ the bedroom; 
thought it might be wuth while jest to look in, 
as it were.” 

“Indeed, we shall look in,” Saxe declared, 
“and we’re tremendously grateful to you, Jake, 
for the tip, because we need a lot of help, I’m 




HAPHAZARD QUESTING 


107 


thinking.” 

Roy nodded assent. 

“We appreciate the kindness, old chap,” he 
exclaimed. “And let me tell you that I’m going 
to show my friendship by getting you a decent 
berth, after this wild adventure is over and 
done with, where you’ll have the chance of 
your life. Your skill with engines is wasted 
here; it’s ’way off in Cuba, but it’ll be worth 
your while. Would you like that?” 

“You bet ye!” was the sententious answer of 
the boatman, as he turned to lead the way 
toward the house. Presently, he chuckled yet 
once again, contentedly, and added: “My old 
woman alius has been a-pinin’ to travel in 
furrin parts.” 




I 


* 


CHAPTER VIII 

IN THE RECESS 

A T THE house, no one was visible with 
.the exception of Billy Walker, who, on 
the porch, reclined in a large rocking-chair, dis¬ 
playing his customary masterly inactivity, the 
while he contemplated the tip of a particularly 
black cigar, which he had not troubled to light 
for the sufficient reason that there were no 
matches nearer than the hall. The informa¬ 
tion concerning the recess within the walls was 
duly imparted to him, and he followed his two 
friends and the boatman to the closet in 
the hallway upstairs. The others were inclined 
to jeer at Billy Walker for this surprising 
show of activity on his part. But it was a jibe 
from Roy that put the lethargic one on his met¬ 
tle. It came after Jake had cut through the 
paper in a panel from floor to ceiling, by which 
was revealed a black opening into the space 
beyond. 

“And, above all,” Roy said, entreatingly, 
“don't, I beg of you, Billy, let your rash im¬ 
petuosity lead you to squeezing in here. Re- 

108 


IN THE RECESS 


109 


member your paunch, and be warned in time.” 

It is certain that, until this moment, Billy 
had had no slightest thought of thus venturing 
into the opening. But human nature is often 
contrary, and, though ordinarily Billy vastly 
preferred taunts to physical exertion, in this 
instance it so chanced that his friend’s remark 
touched him in a sensitive spot. He said noth¬ 
ing at the time, however, contenting himself 
with a sudden, valiant resolve. So, after can¬ 
dles had been brought, and his two friends had 
squeezed themselves, one after the other into 
the opening, Billy Walker, in his turn, essayed 
an entrance—to the considerable astonishment 
of Jake, who remained in the hall. 

“Better take a candle, sir,” he suggested; 
and he offered one already lighted. 

It was accepted, and, holding it high before 
him, Billy surveyed the region into which he 
meant to venture thus intrepidly. By the flick¬ 
ering light, he beheld a very narrow passage, 
in which, toward the farther end, he could dis¬ 
tinguish the deeper shadow that he knew to be 
Roy, who had been the second to enter. There 
could be no doubt as to the person’s identity, 
since there was no room in which one person 




110 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


could pass another unless by climbing. 

At sight of the limited space, Billy was 
assailed with pangs of regret that he had so 
vaingloriously undertaken the adventure. 
Nevertheless, he felt that it was now too late 
to retreat, and, with a sigh of disgust, he thrust 
himself forward. He had observed in his brief 
examination that there was no flooring, but 
merely the naked joists, over which he must 
make his way very cautiously, stepping accu¬ 
rately from one to another. Warily, then, he 
went forward, using every caution. It was by 
no means pleasant going, because of the pre¬ 
carious footing, and, too, because of the fact 
that his broad shoulders were unduly con¬ 
stricted by the walls on either side. Disaster 
came when a nail caught in the sleeve of his 
coat, just as he gave a lunge forward. The 
unexpected restraint threw him out of balance; 
in recovering himself, he dropped the candle. 
On the instant, his imagination was filled with 
glaring visions of the house in flames. 
Alarmed he stooped his heavy body swiftly— 
too swiftly, alas—for his feet slipped from the 
narrow supports. He fell heavily. His hands 
and arms shot through the plastering that 




IN THE RECESS 


111 


ceiled the room beneath. The violence of the 
impact was such that a large square of the 
plastering broke away, and went clattering to 
the floor of the room below. But, before the 
noise of its falling sounded, Billy Walker had 
heard another sound, a sharp cry of surprise, 
or fear. Through the rain of plaster, his eyes 
caught one glimpse of a darting figure; his ears 
distinguished from out the other din a scurry 
of steps over the polished floor. Even in the 
turmoil of the moment, Billy automatically 
noted these things. But, at the time, he gave 
no heed whatever to them, his one desire just 
then was to escape from this horrible predica¬ 
ment without the loss of an instant. To that 
end, he immediately began to back out, with 
never another thought to the candle, which, 
however, had been extinguished by the fall. 

Slowly and wrathfully, Billy Walker made 
his laborious retreat on hands and knees back¬ 
ward from the scene of his exploits. His 
friends, startled by the noise behind them, had 
managed to face about, and to hurry toward 
him, and now they stood, one behind the other, 
peering at the prostrate one; at first in amaze¬ 
ment over his presence there at all; then, in 




112 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


alarm over his condition; finally, reassured, in 
hilarious enjoyment of the catastrophe that had 
befallen him. Their presence and comments did 
not tend to soothe the outraged feelings of the 
victim as he wearily crept, retrograde, into the 
closet, and at last scrambled to his feet in the 
hallway. Jake was so discreet as to say noth¬ 
ing at all, which reticence gave him a place 
for all time in the unhappy man's esteem, de¬ 
spite the fact that the disaster had come from 
accepting the proffered candle. The others, 
unfortunately, were not so restrained, and 
their remarks came near to offending Billy 
Walker; certainly, they increased his exasper¬ 
ation against the event that had made him 
ridiculous. But, after a little, he contrived a 
diversion: 

“I hope that plastering didn't hurt anybody 
when it fell," he exclaimed, of a sudden. 

Jake shook his head. 

“Nope!" he declared. “Thar wa'n't nobody 
downstairs, I guess, Marthy's out at the back, 
lookin’ arter her flower garden, and thar wa’n't 
nobody else round when we come up.” 

“But there was someone in the room down¬ 
stairs," Billy persisted. “I heard a cry, just 




IN THE RECESS 


113 


as my fists went through the plastering, and 
then, along with the other noise, I heard the 
steps of someone running out.” 

“Was it a man or a woman?” Roy asked. 

Billy shook his head. 

“Really, I haven't the least idea,” he 
answered, “You see, I was pretty well occu¬ 
pied at the moment with my own affairs, and 
I didn't pay a particle of attention to anything 
else.” 

“Anyhow, I don’t see that it matters much,” 
Saxe declared. “It's plain that you didn't hurt 
anyone seriously, or we'd have heard of it 
before this; it didn't wound Mrs. Dustin, or 
Chris, for here they both come now.” He 
waved his hand toward the stairs, and the 
others turned to see the two hurrying up. 

Mrs. Dustin was voluble, and mightily 
relieved to learn that her precious Jake had 
suffered no harm. The mild, black eyes of 
Mrs. West’s servant twinkled with amused 
excitement, when he was informed as to the 
nature of the happening. They, too, were 
puzzled on hearing that someone had been in 
the music-room at the time of the accident. 

The three friends went down to the porch, 




114 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


which was still deserted. Billy, who had cast 

* 

a disgusted glance on the litter in the drawing¬ 
room in passing, sighed lugubriously, as he 
sank back into the rocking-chair. 

“No more thrilling adventures by field and 
flood for me,” he boomed. “I have had my 
bellyful, all at once. Let the cobbler stick to 
his last, and let me stick to my chair. I got 
too confoundedly energetic, and Fm old 
enough to know better. Eve messed up the 
place shockingly, which means so much extra 
work for the industrious Mrs. Dustin, whose 
amiable, but foolish husband got me into this 
idiotic scrape. You would have found that 
there was no gold in the place without my 
assistance; and, unfortunately, I’ve incurred a 
financial penalty for my misplaced intrusive¬ 
ness—into the plastering—and when the re¬ 
pairs of Miss West’s ceiling shall have been 
accomplished, it will be my melancholy duty 
to foot the bill. Oh, misery!” 

The others laughed with the unfortunate, 
who was now again restored to his usual good 
humor. But, presently, Saxe spoke in a 
puzzled voice: 

“You really must have been mistaken, Billy, 





IN THE RECESS 


115 


about having heard someone down below you, 
in the music-room. ,, 

Billy Walker snorted indignantly. 

“I may possibly be a trifle languorous phys¬ 
ically in some ways on occasion,” he retorted, 
“but I assure you that my ears are quick 
enough. I was not mistaken. I heard just 
what I told you I heard, and I saw, too.” 

The others were unaware that Billy did not 
exaggerate the excellent quality of his hearing, 
and, in consequence, they found themselves at a 
loss. It was Roy, the suspicious, who finally 
voiced the idea that was bound to find lodg¬ 
ment in their minds. When he spoke, it was in 
a tone of conviction: 

“The ubiquitous Masters, of course!” 

Saxe nodded assent. 

“Spying again,” he agreed. “We know that 
he's capable of it.” He turned to Billy Walker, 
inquiringly. 

“The fellow is undoubtedly open to suspi¬ 
cion, after what you caught him at the other 
day.” Billy admitted. “Equally of course, we 
haven't a shred of evidence against him.” 

“That doesn't matter a bit, as long as we 
have the moral certainty,” Saxe argued. “But 




116 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


the real gist of the problem is: What on earth 
is the fellow up to, anyhow?” 

^It’s just pure cussedness,” Roy asserted, his 
face hardening. “One look at him is enough to 
warn anyone that he’s spoiling for mischief. 
He’s a rotter, that’s all.” 

Billy Walker shook his head, authorita¬ 
tively. 

“You’re wrong, as usual,” he announced, 
with unpleasant frankness. “As a matter of 
fact, our friend, the enemy, has a motive other 
than sheer deviltry.” 

The others regarded the speaker in surprise, 
whereat Billy Walker nodded his head vigor¬ 
ously a number of times, and looked very wise 
indeed. 

“Yes,” he continued, with much complac¬ 
ency. “After you had told me the incident of 
his listening to your talk together, I grappled 
with the problem of the engineer’s not mind¬ 
ing his own business, and I presently came on 
the obvious solution of the puzzle.” He 
paused, expectantly. 

“Well, what was it?” Roy demanded, impa¬ 
tiently. He was still smarting a little from 
Billy’s sweeping statement as to his own habit 




IN THE RECESS 


117 


of inaccuracy. Saxe, too, showed a keen curi¬ 
osity in his face. 

“The simple truth of the matter is this/’ 
the oracle resumed, when he felt that he had 
sufficiently whetted their interest by delay. 
“This man, Masters, has a mind to lay hold 
on Abernethey’s treasure himself.” He 
stared triumphantly at first one and then the 
other of his hearers. 

The effect on them was enough to satisfy 
the purveyor of information. Roy fairly 
gaped in amazement, while Saxe manifested 
first astonishment, then incredulity, which 
he voiced baldly: 

“Absurd!” he cried. 

But Billy Walker was prepared to main¬ 
tain his contention with arguments, and 
forthwith he did so. And, at the last, Billy 
made a shrewd suggestion, which, by a 
totally different method, arrived at the con¬ 
clusion already reached by Roy through his 
vaunted sixth sense. 

“You may have wondered a little,” the 
oracle said, “that I should have made no 
particular remonstrance when you incon¬ 
tinently gave up the search commanded by 




118 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


immutable logic. Well, as a matter of fact, 
I myself would have suggested the useless¬ 
ness of further effort along those lines. Y r ou 
see, the affair lies thus.” He paused for a 
moment, and pursed his lips, as one prepar¬ 
ing for didactic discourse. “This chap, 
Masters, is on terms of considerable 
intimacy, I judge, with the girl who was the 
secretary of the late Mr. Abernethey. More¬ 
over, he was here, on the spot. There can 
be no question that, sooner or later, he 
learned the facts from her concerning the 
last will and testament of the eccentric miser. 
Thereupon, he determined to go treasure¬ 
hunting on his own account. He was on 
the job instanter, so to speak. In fact, I’m 
quite willing to eat my hat, which is an 
especially indigestible variety of Stetson, if 
the cottage has not already been searched 
with great thoroughness by our industrious 
antagonist.” Billy stared at his two friends 
contentedly out of his small, dull eyes, and 
his heavy face wrinkled into a smile. 

The result of his words was all that he 
could have desired. 

“The infernal sneak!” Roy exclaimed, vio- 




IN THE RECESS 


119 


lently. His eyes grew hard, his mouth set, 
with the slight forward push of the jaw. In 
Saxe's face, too, anger was plain. “To think 
of a nice girl being fooled like that!" Roy 
continued furiously, after an interval of 
silence. “But we’ll land the robber some¬ 
how. If we don’t, I’ll find some excuse for 
beating him up." 

“Never mind the pummeling," Billy 
counseled. “Just you keep your eyes open 
that he doesn’t beat you—to the money. 
For the present, that’s more important than 
jealous rows." At this remark, which' 
showed that the scholar was more observant 
than might have been supposed in a field so 
foreign to his usual investigations, Roy 
blushed for the first time in many years, and 
Saxe was so rude as to titter aloud. 

It was at this moment that David appeared 
from around the north end of the cottage. 
Forthwith, he was made familiar with all 
that had happened during the period of his 
absence, together with the lively suspicions 
entertained against the engineer. When 
the tale had been told, David took a few 
minutes for reflection before he spoke. 




120 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


‘Tm willing to believe anything against 
that ornery critter,” he remarked at last, 
with his big eyes twinkling; “but I am, 
before all else, a just man. You’ve got to 
leave Masters out on this last deal. As a 
matter of fact, he has a perfectly good alibi; 
I wanted a line on the rapscallion, and so I 
fairly forced myself on him this morning— 
to his disgust. But he didn’t think it quite 
prudent, I guess, to be out-and-out rude to 
me. For the last two hours Masters and I 
have been together, strolling chummily over 
the hills and far away.” 





CHAPTER IX 

THE GOLD SONG 


A S MRS. WEST, with Margaret and May 
l Thurston, had gone for a stroll soon 
after the departure of David and the engi¬ 
neer, the mystery concerning the identity of 
the person in the music-room at the time of 
Billy's misadventure remained unsolved. 
The subject afforded the friends much oppor¬ 
tunity for speculation, all of which resulted 
in nothing definite. Margaret and her 
mother showed not the slightest irritation 
over the way in which the property had been 
damaged; on the contrary, they were seen 
to smile whenever their gaze touched the 
broken place in the ceiling, which remained 
the mute witness to an inglorious achieve¬ 
ment. Saxe, while awaiting the develop¬ 
ment of another idea for the quest, devoted 
himself assiduously to Margaret. He made 
no effort to conceal his infatuation—or, if he 
did, the attempt was futile. He was, indeed, 
so flagrant in his court as to fill the engineer 
with an ever increasing fury of jealousy, which 

121 


122 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


threatened ill to one or the other of the two 
young men. On his part, Saxe was made 
miserable by the affability with which Mar¬ 
garet accepted the attendance of the engineer 
on her. It seemed monstrous that her 
instinct should leave her unwarned as to the 
vicious character of the fellow. Saxe felt 
that he, as a gentleman, could give her no 
least word of admonition under the circum¬ 
stances. He could only do his best to keep 
at her side every moment, and in this he 
succeeded remarkably well, though by no 
means to the extent of his desire. As for 
the disposition of the girl herself, she showed 
neutrality between the two men in a manner 
that, while equally objectionable to each of 
them, must have commanded the admiration 
of any unprejudiced observer. 

Roy devoted himself with good grace to 
May Thurston, who welcomed him candidly, 
for her heart was deeply wounded by the 
patent defection of her lover. Masters had 
glibly assured her that it was the part of 
diplomacy just now for him to conceal their 
real relation by his attentions to Margaret, 
but his reasoning was not altogether con- 




THE GOLD SONG 


123 


vincing to her intelligence, and the voice of 
instinct told her that her love was being 
flouted before her very eyes. In consequence, 
she greeted this new admirer gladly as a sop 
to her pride and, presently, as Roy exerted 
himself to the utmost toward making a favor¬ 
able impression, for the sake of the genuine 
pleasure his company gave her. Being a 
sensible young woman in the main, the 
inevitable comparisons that soon began to 
arise in her mind between the two young 
men did much toward tearing loose the roots 
of love from her heart, leaving the soil there 
freshly tilled for the planting of other seed. 

Mrs. West played her part excellently as 
chaperon by giving her society much of the 
time to David and Billy. She was so good 
to look on in her well-preserved charms, and 
so wise and sympathetic in her conversation, 
and so untiring a listener, that the two men 
found themselves very content. 

The other three members of the house¬ 
hold, Jake, his wife, and Chris made an 
amiable trio in the kitchen, where Mrs. Dus¬ 
tin, who, as Jake bore witness, had always 
“hankered to go a-travelin’,” was never 




124 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


weary of hearing the newcomer’s tales of 
strange places whither he had journeyed. 
For the first time in his life, Chris found him¬ 
self appreciated at his full worth, perhaps 
beyond, not as a servant but as a man, by 
those who, while of a humble walk in life, 
were yet not of the servant class. He 
expanded under the novel and pleasing influ¬ 
ence, and developed a gift of narrative that 
surprised himself. He felt a new sense of his 
own importance, which did not in the least 
lessen his devotion to Mrs. West and Mar¬ 
garet. 

On the third night after the episode in 
the recess, the ladies had retired to their 
chambers for the night, and the indefatigable 
Masters, also, had taken his departure from 
the cottage, but the four friends still 
remained in the music-room, where Saxe had 
been playing. They were smoking and chat¬ 
ting in care-free fashion of many things— 
but not of the treasure which they had set 
out to find, though that lay ready at the back 
of the mind of each. 

Saxe lingered at the piano. Now, he was 
idly giving forth bits of various compositions 




THE GOLD SONG 


125 


as they chanced to rise in memory. It was 
while in this mood of desultory reminiscence 
that he suddenly became aroused to knowl¬ 
edge of the fact that he was monotonously 
drumming a tedious strain, which had 
neither melody or harmony to justify the 
choice of it at all, much less this senseless 
reiteration. For a few seconds, he found 
himself bewildered: he could not recall what 
the music was, either the name of the com¬ 
position or the name of the author. Nor 
could he recollect what manner of associa¬ 
tion he had ever had with the barren phrases, 
that he should thus subconsciously carry 
them in memory. He was disagreeably 
impressed by the event, because he prided 
himself on the clarity of his mental proc¬ 
esses, and here he found himself completely 
baffled. Then, in a flash, remembrance came, 
and with it an even greater wonder. 

This was the music that had been written 
by the old man of whom he was the doubtful 
heir. Even while he mused, he had been con¬ 
tinuing the harsh fragment, and now he gave 
careful ear to it, seeking some explanation of 
the reason why it had persisted in memory, 




126 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 

to issue in his playing without volition on 
his part. But there came no suggestion as 
to that cause from the uncouth strain. He 
played it once again, without any hint of 
understanding, then ceased, wholly at a loss; 
it was another who afforded the clue that 
had eluded him. 

As the echoes died away, Billy Walker 
rumbled a comment from his luxurious hud¬ 
dling in the depths of the chair: 

“Sounds like money—heaps of money— 
gold, you know, all in stacks, being counted 
—clink, clink! Clink, clink!” 

Saxe whirled on the piano-stool, an expres¬ 
sion of amazement on his face as he stared 
at his unmusical friend. 

“By heavens, Billy/’ he cried excitedly, 
“you’ve got it—you’ve got it exactly! That’s 
what it is; it’s the clink, clink, clink of the 
gold-pieces, as they’re piled up.” He was 
astounded by this perspicacity on the part of 
one who had no soul for music, yet had suc¬ 
ceeded here, where he himself had failed. 
He had no particle of doubt that this expla¬ 
nation as to the meaning of the music was 
the true one. He played the piece once 




THE GOLD SONG 


127 


again, emphasizing the accent in the bass a 
little, so that the effect was even more pro¬ 
nounced. There could be no mistake. 

Roy spoke with sudden appreciation of the 
fact: 

“Why, that’s the piece you played the 
other night—the weird one. I’d been won¬ 
dering where I’d heard it. It’s the one that 
got on Miss Thurston’s nerves so, because 
the old man was always playing it toward 
the last. It’s enough to get on anyone’s 
nerves, for that matter, but Billy hit the idea 
all right.” 

David Thwing, nodding energetically, 
turned his protuberant eyes on Billy. 

“Yes, you hit it, old man,” he exclaimed. 
“You got the idea we were all looking for, 
and couldn’t quite catch hold of. Bully for 
you! But how in the world did you ever 
come to do it? You, a music sharp!” He 
burst into a mellow peal of laughter, in which 
the others joined. 

Suddenly, Saxe sprang to his feet, with a 
display of emotion that was contrary to his 
habit, for he had schooled himself to a cer¬ 
tain phlegmatic bearing that masked the 




128 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


native susceptibility of his moods. Now, 
however, he forgot restraint in the agitation 
of his feeling, and addressed his friends with 
a vehemence that astonished them. His 
swift gestures and the changing play of his 
features revealed the volatile artistic tem¬ 
perament, which was ordinarily shrouded 
within a veil of imperturbable calm. 

“I know, I understand it all now,” he 
declared eagerly. “In this music, the old 
man crystallized his besetting sin. This 
composition of his is the song of gold; it 
is the miser’s song. In it, he translates into 
musical terms the vice that corroded his soul. 
In it, he expresses the sordidness of that vice, 
even as he himself knew it out of dreadful 
personal experience. And, somehow, he put 
into the music the strength of the spell that 
was laid on him. It is there—some malig¬ 
nant fascination which each and every one 
of us has felt in a fashion of his own. That 
is why it so gripped Miss Thurston, and why 
it affected her so disagreeably. It has in it 
a subtle, irresistible suggestion of the hide¬ 
ous. The ignominy and the power of greed 
alike sound in the monotony of its rhythm, 





THE GOLD SONG 


129 


its harshness, its fearful simplicity. It is 
uncouth, it is as if it were calloused. Yet, 
it is full of vital, frightful emotion. It is a 
statement of ghastly truth, it is a confession 
of degradation, it is a wail of utter despair. 
In short, it is the heart-song of the miser, 
written by the brain that looked into the 
heart and learned its hateful mystery.” 

The others had listened in tense silence, 
surprised beyond measure before this out¬ 
break from one always hitherto so tranquil, 
so serene amid the varying stresses of affairs. 
It was the revelation of their friend in a new 
light, wherein he showed with an impres¬ 
siveness strange to them. They watched 
him intently as he stood there before them, 
all animation, his handsome face flushed in 
the passion of the moment. A little sigh of 
appreciation issued from the lips of each as, 
with the last words, he sank again to the 
piano-stool, and dropped his hands to the 
keys. So, once again, he played the music 
of that dead man who had given himself to 
a gross, an evil worship. Still under the 
influence of deep emotion, the player now 
abandoned himself to the theme, and 




130 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


wrought on it with all his skill in music, with 
all the feeling of repulsion that held him in 
thrall. 

There was not in this improvisation the 
power, the mastery, that had marked the 
frenzied interpretation by which the com¬ 
poser had amazed the night. But Saxe Temple 
was not wanting a large measure of skill, and 
to this he added the sympathy of the true 
artist, surcharged with a profound emotion. 
The uncanny spell of the music laid its hold on 
them all as he went on playing, gripped them, 
sent weird visions reeling before their fancy. 
Even Billy Walker for once was beguiled into 
a curious receptivity, so that he saw vistas of 
crouched specters, which ceaselessly shuffled 
golden coins to and fro, in a frenetic joy 
that was the madness of anguish. May 
Thurston, asleep in her chamber, turned 
uneasily, and her dreams grew troubled. 

When, at last, Saxe had made an end of 
playing, there followed a long silence. It was 
Billy Walker who broke it. His great voice 
rang through the room, harsh, compelling: 

“IBs there/' he said, with simple finality. 
“IBs there—the clue!" 





CHAPTER X 

IN THE WOOD 

T HE others received the astonishing pro¬ 
nouncement of Billy Walker with vary¬ 
ing emotions, of which the chief was a candid 
incredulity. 

“How in the world do you justify that 
remarkable statement ?” Roy demanded, 
breaking the silence of surprise, which had 
at first held the three. 

For a moment, Billy showed traces of 
embarrassment. Then, swiftly, an expres¬ 
sion of relief showed on his heavy face, and 
he spoke glibly enough: 

“The conclusion to which I have come/’ he 
declared ponderously, “is compelled by exact 
reasoning from all the facts in our posses¬ 
sion. The late Mr. Abernethey unquestion¬ 
ably left for his heir some sort of clue as to 
the hiding-place of the money. Having in 
mind the whimsical nature of the man, we 
may well believe that, in a case such as this, 
the clue would be of an especially curious 
kind. Next, we have the fact that Mr. Aber- 

131 


132 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


nethey was a musician. He was devoted to 
that art beyond anything else, excepting 
only his passion as a miser. Now, our search 
through his effects and his house has dis¬ 
covered only a single thing having a real, 
vital bearing on his personality, and—more 
than that—on the very object of our quest 
here, money. In consequence of all these 
facts, I am led to the conclusion that this 
page of manuscript offers us the clue for 
which we have hitherto been hunting in 
vain.” The speaker paused, to stare from 
one to another of his auditors triumphantly. 

Roy uttered an ejaculation of impatience. 

“Reason is a good thing sometimes, and 
sometimes it isn’t. This, I’m thinking, is 
one of the times when it isn’t. The trouble 
with your whole argument, Billy, lies in an 
additional fact; that a sheet of music can’t 
tell you where a certain hole in the ground 
may chance to be.” 

“Why not?” Billy’s question came tartly. 

Roy replied with a hint of disdain in his 
voice, such as is often characteristic of the 
musical person in speaking of his art to one 
unlearned. 




IN THE WOOD 


133 


“The reason would be obvious to you, if 
you knew anything of music/’ he declared. 

“Then, it’s lucky I don’t,” was the other’s 
retort; “because, in some way that we don’t 
know yet, the clue we need is set down on 
that manuscript. It is logically certain, and, 
if you musical sharps can’t guess as much, 
it’s fortunate I’m along to give you the 
pointer.” 

David, also, expressed himself as skeptical 
of the announcement made by Billy: 

“If it had been anybody except Billy who 
had been hit by this idea, I should feel quite 
differently about it,” he asserted, chuckling 
in response to the glare of indignation with 
which the oracle received the words. “Of 
course, you know my feeling in the matter. 
I’m expecting some sort of inspiration to hit 
us; I have been, ever since Roy had his 
hunch. But Billy isn’t of the sensitive tem¬ 
perament, which is receptive to impressions 
of a psychic sort. If Roy had received this 
idea, without a bit of reason to back it up, I 
should have had high hopes—or if it had 
come to Saxe even, because he has the sensi¬ 
tiveness of the artistic temperament.” 




134 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


“Or even if it had come to your delicately 
susceptible self, I suppose/’ Billy suggested, 
acrimoniously. 

David nodded assent. 

“With all humility, yes,” he answered, 
uabashed. “And you needn’t be peevish, 
Billy, for the simple reason that you’d be 
furious if anyone were to accuse you of being 
a psychic subject. Eh, wouldn’t you?” 

Billy growled assent. 

“That sort of thing’s all rot,” he affirmed, 
with emphasis. “I arrived at the fact easily 
and sanely by the exercise of a rationalizing 
intelligence.” 

“Precisely!” David agreed. “And that’s 
why I don’t attach the slightest importance 
to your statement.” At this heterodox con¬ 
fession, Billy was too overwhelmed with dis¬ 
gust to pursue the argument farther. 

Saxe did not share in the avowed disbelief 
of Roy and David. While the others were 
engaged in disputation, he had gone to the 
stack of music, and had looked through it 
until he came upon the sheet of manuscript. 
Then, he returned to his seat on the stool, 
placed the music on the rack, and devoted 




IN THE WOOD 


135 


himself to scrutiny of the writing. He felt, 
somehow, that he dared not reject the sug¬ 
gestion that here was the very thing he 
sought as the guide to fortune. Neverthe¬ 
less, though he studied the page with anxious 
intensity, he could perceive no possibility of 
any hint to be derived from the simple score 
of notes. There was nothing set down in 
the way of diagram, or combination of let¬ 
ters which by twist of ingenuity might be 
made to suit his need. Nothing showed 
beyond the phrases of a composition naked 
in its simplicity. Reason told him that any 
trust in this manuscript were delusion. Yet, 
he hung over it, absorbed, even while he 
chided himself for his interest in a thing 
plainly worthless to the purpose. 

It was Billy Walker, turning in disgust 
from the debate with David, who first 
observed Saxe’s absorption in the manu¬ 
script, and his vanity was at once consoled 
by this mute support. He got up lumber- 
ingly, and crossed over to the piano, where 
he stood looking down at the music. His 
action caused David and Roy to perceive 
what Saxe was doing, and forthwith, despite 




136 THE LAKE MYSTERY 

their skepticism, they, too, rose and went to 
the piano, there to stare down curiously at 
the manuscript on the rack. 

Here is a copy of the sheet on which the 
four adventurers were looking down: 


Largo 



/\ 

h ih- ; - ti 


J i W * fl 

J/tl Q. T.A 


■g 1 °^— 


—- . . . .. u 


- rr 

-4— 


g i Jj- 1 

pB . 


/i, > L 


i » 





- 





V\7 ' TV". • 

* 



K K. 

K 

s_vi -—• v 

e) 


=>■ , 

k >- 

r r r 

1 K 5 * 1 1 


* r *r 

i ^ i — 

1 k^*" 1 

"2TV* 1 ~ 

nnrrB i 

ftyir 


9 9 

- # d^m t ir» 

• l«i l> /• i . 

\9 *<1 7- 

- J - J 


ml J 


<3 X— 



** 


A.a 

at •w 

-, uL, . 


r -fti>r—J'-g-f- 

-frT 

R . ^ r 


1 

b L- ■! f - HL 


m T —^ w - m ~ m 4 




a. Zi m !Z — g ^ 

-3' - "-*5 X - 

j» p 


r-^T t- 

r 













































































IN THE WOOD 


137 


The four stood in silence for a long minute, 
gazing down at the manuscript page with 
keen discouragement. Saxe was the first to 
speak, shaking his head dispiritedly: 

"It means nothing/’ he said, with melan¬ 
choly certainty in his voice. “There is no 
possibility of its meaning anything. For a 
moment, I was foolish enough to hope that 
Billy had really got the right idea, but he 
hasn’t. This is a plain bit of music, nothing 
more/’ 

“Of course!” Roy agreed, with a contemp¬ 
tuous inflection. “My personal opinion is 
that the power of ratiocination is not always 
what it’s cracked up to be, Billy.” 

David, once again, shared the general dis¬ 
belief. 

“No,” he declared, “the idea won’t hold 
water. There is no way to convey meaning 
by the score of a musical composition except 
the emotion that the author has experienced 
himself, and wishes thus to interpret to his 
hearers. The old man meant in this case to 
tell us of the spell that the love of gold lays 
on the miser. He has done that. Billy was 
the one who called our attention to the fact. 





138 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


He must be content with that much glory. 
His other idea was just poppycock.” 

Billy Walker was unconvinced. 

“I know nothing about music,” he con¬ 
ceded. “But I have the God-given gift of 
reason, which is not vouchsafed to the brutes 
—or to all human beings, I regret to say. 
Reason convinces me that the clue lies some¬ 
where on this sheet. I reaffirm my conclu¬ 
sion. Since I know nothing of music, the 
remainder of the work must be done by you. 
It has now become your responsibility. I 
have done my part.” 

The dignity and the earnestness with 
which this declaration was made impressed 
the doubters in spite of themselves. When 
Billy had ceased speaking, they remained 
silent, vaguely hesitant, though quite uncon¬ 
vinced. Saxe, perhaps, more than either of 
the others was desirous of accepting Billy's 
idea as true, but he was unable to justify 
it by anything tangible. His was, after all, 
the chief interest in the issue, and he was 
eager to seize on even the most meager pos¬ 
sibility that offered hope of success. So now, 
he was anxious to believe, and racked his 






IN THE WOOD 


139 


brain to find some character of subtle signifi¬ 
cance on the page before him. It was in 
vain. He could discern nothing beyond the 
obvious meaning of the score as the symbol 
of a musical composition. 

Thus the matter remained for a week. 
Billy Walker retained certainty as to the cor¬ 
rectness of his judgment; David and Roy 
maintained their attitude of skepticism; Saxe 
continued his mood of willingness to believe, 
along with a total incapacity to find an atom 
of evidence in support of it. He sat for hours 
before the manuscript, hoping for some 
inspiration to come, but his thoughts 
remained barren. He realized, with poig¬ 
nant regret, that time was slipping away on 
swiftest wings, yet he felt himself powerless 
before the problem, on the solving of which 
his fortune was conditioned. 

Nevertheless, not all his time was given to 
the quest. A part, even the greater part, 
was bestowed on Margaret West—on her 
in person, when opportunity served, on her 
in thought, when absent from her. His 
failure to make any progress in the search 
for the treasure would without doubt have 




140 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


caused him vastly more distress of mind, had 
it not been for the fact that most of his 
energy was devoted to the girl. Worry over 
money could not affect him to desperation, 
when he was constantly titillating over the 
secret of a maiden’s heart. He was assid¬ 
uous in his attentions, but he could not win 
from Margaret any sure indication of prefer¬ 
ence. She was as amiable as the most exact¬ 
ing lover might require, but she displayed 
none of that coyness or confusion for which 
Saxe looked as a sign that her heart was 
engaged. He did not dare over-much, for 
the brief length of their acquaintance seemed 
to forbid. But this restraint caused him tor¬ 
ment on account of jealousy, since Masters 
appeared soon as an open rival in the wooing 
of the girl. Margaret's treatment of the 
engineer was of such a sort that it drove 
Saxe nearly to desperation. She was unfail¬ 
ingly as amiable to the one as to the other of 
her suitors. It was, to Saxe, utterly incon¬ 
ceivable that any woman could be guilty of 
such folly as to love a man like the engineer, 
yet the girl’s attitude toward Masters filled 
him with alarm, so that he pressed his own 





IN THE WOOD 


141 


suit with more insistence, and came to hate 
his adversary exceedingly. 

Masters, too, suffered under the curse of 
jealousy. His love for Margaret was a sin¬ 
cere passion, and the hate Saxe bore for him 
he returned in overflowing measure. 
Through all his emotion of love, however, 
there remained in undiminished vigor his 
desire to possess himself of the gold hidden 
by Abernethey. And, presently, there grew 
in him a desperate resolve, brought into 
being in part by greed, in part by hatred of 
his rival. 

•May Thurston was another in the throes 
of anguish, and that from no fault of her 
own. Her love for the engineer had involved 
her in almost unendurable humiliation. His 
ostentatious worship of Margaret West at 
first filled May with the agony of outraged 
affection, then forced her to the wrath of 
revolt against such treachery. This mood 
endured. The little hypocrisies of loving, 
which Masters attempted on the rare occa¬ 
sions when the two were alone together, did 
not deceive her in the least. Yet, the final 
break between the two was delayed for lack 




142 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


of courage on her part to accuse him openly 
of his guilt. The matter stood thus between 
them when, one morning after a sleepless 
night, May got from her bed before sunrise, 
dressed herself hurriedly, and left the cot¬ 
tage, hoping that the freshness of the dawn 
might serve to soothe her wearied nerves. 
She wandered aimlessly hither and yon 
through the woods bordering the shore, and 
did indeed win some solace for her soul in 
the radiance of the summer day. She was 
about fifty yards distant from the cottage, 
descending the slope that ran to the shore, 
when she heard a slight noise among the 
bushes in front of her. She halted instantly, 
curious to know what manner of creature 
might be at hand, and welcoming any dis¬ 
traction from the distress in her heart. 

Herself hidden by a screen of foliage, she 
peered forth cautiously, searching with her 
eyes the thicket beyond. At first, she could 
distinguish nothing, and, after a little, 
became convinced that she had been deceived 
by the dropping of a rotted branch. She was 
on the point of advancing again, when 
another and louder sound arrested her. It 





IN THE WOOD 


143 


issued from a place somewhat farther to the 
right than that she had scrutinized, and now, 
as she watched intently, she made out the 
dim form of some object moving slowly 
within a clump of high bushes, from the 
center of which grew a thick-leafed sapling. 
Another minute of inspection convinced her 
that the object was a man, and immediately 
an intuition bore upon her that it was 
Masters himself. Sure of his identity, she 
went forward quickly, following the impulse 
of the moment, and called him by name. 

Masters—for it was in truth the engineer 
—whirled and faced the girl with an expres¬ 
sion of terror, which, however, vanished so 
swiftly that May afterward found herself 
wondering if in fact she had not merely 
imagined it. Moreover, he smiled on her 
with more tenderness than he had exhibited 
in his manner for days, and his voice, when 
he spoke, was caressing: 

“You, May!” he cried. His tones indicated 
a joyous surprise over the unexpected meet¬ 
ing. “You, too, are rivaling the lark this 
morning, like myself. I woke up three hours 
ago, and, when I found there was no chance 





144 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


to get to sleep again, I decided to commune 
with nature. I’ve been trailing a wonderful 
moth, but I’ve lost it at last, I’m sorry to 
say. It was a beauty!” He paused from the 
flow of words, which had been perhaps a 
trifle too rapid for entire sincerity, and 
regarded the girl with a glance that was at 
once fond and quizzical. “And did you, too, 
have a touch of insomnia?” he inquired. 

May nodded, rather listlessly. For some 
reason that she could not understand, she 
was not convinced by the specious suavity of 
the engineer’s utterance. At the back of Her 
mind was a belief that the man was lying, 
though she refused to allow the accusation 
place. Her instinct revolted against the dis¬ 
loyalty of the fellow. Nevertheless, her 
heart was moved to a last struggle in behalf 
of the love to which she had once so joyously 
surrendered herself. She determined on an 
appeal to that better nature which she 
believed the engineer to possess: 

“Hartley,” she said softly, “I wish you to 
do something for me—no, for yourself. I 
want you to give up this mad idea of secur¬ 
ing the gold Mr. Abernethey hid.” The gaze 




IN THE WOOD 


145 


of her dark eyes was full of affectionate 
pleading. 

The reply of Masters was prompt, without 
any least trace of hesitancy. He put out his 
hand, and took hers, pressing it tenderly. 

“Dearest,” he said softly, “you have been 
right, and I have been wrong. I see it now. 
I was carried away for a little while by my 
longing for money. I wanted it for you, 
not for myself altogether—you must know 
that. Now, I have repented. It was my con¬ 
science that kept me awake last night. I 
have already abandoned the idea of trying 
to get hold of a fortune that doesn’t rightly 
belong to me. Can you forgive me, dearest? 
I’ve been a little mad, I think.” He paused, 
and, in the silence that followed, drew her to 
him, and kissed her very gently on the fore¬ 
head. 

May accepted the embrace—knew not, 
indeed, how to refuse it, although it failed 
to thrill her with that rapture which she 
had once known in his arms. Instead, she 
sighed in a confusion of emotions, which she 
herself was far from understanding. As a 
matter of fact, however, this was the begin- 






146 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


ning of the end. At last, under the stress of 
doubt inflicted persistently on her higher 
nature, the physical attraction exerted by 
Masters, which, unknown to her, had been 
the impelling cause for the activity of her 
imagination in making him an ideal, this 
potency of sex charm was overwhelmed 
by the essential antagonism between 
her soul and his. A certain shyness 
held her mute, so that Masters was well 
content with the effect he had secured; but, 
in this, his self-confidence and the seeming 
passivity of the girl led him far astray. In 
truth, May felt assured that Masters lied, 
and the failure of personal contact to yield 
any emotion save an actual dissatisfaction 
set the instinctive disbelief in bold relief. 
When, soon afterward, they separated, May 
was secretly aware that her first romance 
had come to an inglorious end. 




CHAPTER XI 

THE SHOT 


I T WAS in the evening of this same day, at 
dinner, that the element of tragedy was 
first injected into the situation. In addition 
to Mrs. West and her daughter, May Thurs¬ 
ton, and the four young men, there was present 
Hartley Masters. He had been invited fre¬ 
quently to dine at the cottage, and had for a 
time accepted every invitation. Latterly, how¬ 
ever, the evidences of strained feeling between 
him and the other men had become so pro¬ 
nounced that he had usually offered some ex¬ 
cuse for declining the kindly hospitality of 
Mrs. West. Another reason that influenced 
him in this was his own lack of confidence in 
his self-control, since the incident at the boat¬ 
house, which he had had some difficulty in 
explaining satisfactorily to May. Neverthe¬ 
less, tonight, he had chosen to rely on his pow¬ 
ers of self-restraint, and had accepted at once 
when Mrs. West suggested his remaining for 
the evening meal. 

The construction of the cottage was such 

147 


148 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


that the dining-room was at the back of the 
house. On the left, as one entered the hall, 
was the large music-room, which occupied the 
entire ground floor of the added wing. On 
the right, the first room was that which had 
served Abernethey as an office. Beyond this 
came the dining-room, with one window at the 
back, and one on the north side. Mrs. West 
sat at the head of the table, in such a posi¬ 
tion that she faced the window to the north. 
Margaret sat opposite her, while Saxe was 
placed at her right hand. Beyond him was 
May Thurston, and beyond her Roy. Billy 
Walker was beside the hostess on the left, and 
then David Thwing, while Masters filled the 
place next to Margaret. 

The conversation at the table went pleasant¬ 
ly enough, despite the latent hostility between 
the engineer and the other men. The antipa¬ 
thy of Saxe and his friends was certainly not 
shared by either Margaret or her mother, 
unless they concealed their feeling with much 
skill, for the daughter addressed herself to 
Masters much of the time, and Mrs. West 
often included him in the conversation. By 
tacit agreement the subject of the miser’s gold 




THE SHOT 


149 


was not touched on by anyone, and the desul¬ 
tory talk ran the usual gamut of art, literature, 
the drama, and those innumerable topics that 
serve as the transient vehicles for individual 
wit and seriousness. 

It chanced that a decanter stood on the table, 
close to the edge, just by Billy Walker’s right 
elbow. As he turned to address David on his 
left, his right arm was moved carelessly, and 
the decanter was jolted from its place. It 
poised for a second, balanced on its bottom 
edge, then fell over the side of the table toward 
the floor. But the time, brief as it was, had 
been sufficient for action on the part of Saxe. 
Naturally of exceeding rapidity of movement, 
although he held this under restraint ordinar- 
ily, so that he appeared rather languid than 
otherwise, an instantaneous responsiveness of 
his body to any command of the will had been 
cultivated by the years of exercise at the piano. 
So, now, on the instant when he perceived the 
touch of Billy’s elbow to the decanter, he 
darted in a single step from his seat to a posi¬ 
tion behind Mrs. West’s chair with arm out¬ 
stretched, and in the same second, his nimble 
fingers had closed on the neck of the falling 




150 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


decanter, to which they clung tenaciously. Be¬ 
fore he could again straighten himself, there 
came a thud against the east wall of the dining¬ 
room—with it the sharp crack of a rifle, fired 
from close at hand. 

Saxe stood erect—stared dumbfounded at 
the others. They stared back at him, wordless 
for the moment, stupefied. Each looked at first 
one and then another, unable to surmise as to 
what had come upon them. It was Masters 
who finally broke the oppressive silence. The 
engineer’s face was of a dead white, and as he 
spoke he tugged nervously at the luxuriant 
mustache: 

“Some hunter’s been mighty careless,” he 
declared; and he smiled, rather feebly, on Mar¬ 
garet, who had looked up at the sound of his 
voice. 

“He sure was some careless,” agreed David 
who, at times, relapsed into an early dialect. 
“Shootin’ promiscuous-like!” He goggled at 
the startled company through his thick lenses. 

Forthwith, a babel broke forth, a confusion 
of exclamations, in which were voiced alarm, 
wonder and anger. It was Saxe, still on his 
feet, who first bethought himself of the thud 




THE SHOT 


151 


< 


heard from the direction of the east wall. At 
once, he went to the sideboard, which was 
against the wall on that side. Only a brief 
search was necessary to reveal the hole which 
the bullet had pierced in the top drawer of the 
sideboard. Saxe uttered an ejaculation that 
brought the others crowding about him. He 
exhibited the opening left by the bullet’s pass¬ 
ing, then pulled out the drawer, and found the 
missile itself imbedded in the back. Roy and 
David, who had become familiar with deadly 
weapons on the frontier of the Northland, dug 
out the bullet, and immediately proceeded to 
learned discourse anent its character and the 
caliber of the rifle from which it had been sent. 
Billy Walker took no interest in this discussion, 
and, having stood on his feet for a longer time 
than was his custom, returned to his seat at the 
table, where he disposed himself with a sigh of 
relief. The ladies, too, went back to their 
places, but Saxe, David and Roy, with Mas¬ 
ters, ran out of the cottage to search for the 
person who had fired the shot. From the 
place in which the bullet had lodged, it was 
evident that the rifle had been fired from some 
point on the ridge back of the cottage, and 





152 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


up this the four took their way, scattering as 
they went to cover a line of considerable 
length. They made a pretty thorough exam¬ 
ination, but came on nothing to indicate who 
the culprit might have been. The underbrush 
was thick along the slope, yet the range of 
space shown by the direction of the bullet was 
so small that they were enabled to beat the 
coverts with completeness. In the end, it was 
the general agreement that some hunter had 
fired at a squirrel on the slope, probably in 
ignorance that a dwelling lay beyond the screen 
of foliage. Afterward, he had gone on his 
way, without any realization of possible peril 
from the shot. 

The dusk was falling ere they abandoned 
the hunt, and started on their return to the 
house. It was just before they reached the 
cottage that David, who was blest with more 
humor than are most, threw back his head, 
and laughed long and heartily with the mellow 
peals that made those who heard him usually 
laugh for sheer sympathy before inquiring the 
cause of his mirth. At the sound, Saxe and 
Roy smiled expectantly; but Masters only 
looked on curiously. 





THE SHOT 


153 


“There’s a bit of comedy in this near-trag¬ 
edy,” David explained, after he had put a 
period to his merriment. “When you get back 
to the house, Saxe old man,” he went on, more 
seriously, “it’s up to you to get down on your 
marrow-bones, and say, ‘Thank you!’ to your 
indolent friend, Billy Walker.” 

“Why ?” Saxe demanded, in astonishment. 

“For the simple reason that he came all-fired 
close to saving your life. In fact, I haven’t 
any doubt that he actually did save it. If not 
that, he saved you from a nasty wound.” 

“I don’t understand yet,” Saxe said, per¬ 
plexed. 

“It’s just this,” David explained. “From 
the location of the bullet in the sideboard, I’m 
strongly of the opinion that you were exactly in 
the line of it, so that, if you had been sitting in 
your place at the table, you would have had it 
clean through the chest. You jumped to catch 
the decanter Billy knocked off the table with his 
elbow. That movement on your part saved you. 
It was Billy’s awkwardness that caused your 
action; so it’s up to you to thank him for saving 
your life. And, as a matter of fact, though I 
laughed, it’s not exactly a subject for mirth.” 




154 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


Saxe’s expression had grown very grave as 
he listened. There comes always to the normal 
man a shock on realizing the imminence of 
death for himself. The fact that the peril is 
past alters the nature of the shock, but it 
hardly lessens it. So, in the present instance, 
the young man, whose great risk was thus sud¬ 
denly brought home to him, felt the thrill of 
deep emotion, in which thankfulness for the 
fate that had intervened in his behalf was 
strong. He said nothing for a few moments, 
nor did Roy, who, in his turn, was affected as 
he understood the danger that had menaced his 
friend. Masters uttered an ejaculation, which 
was indeterminate as to meaning. 

They found the others still in the dining¬ 
room, and immediately learned that Billy 
Walker was quite willing to sacrifice his mod¬ 
esty on the altar of fact; for he greeted their 
return with a roaring statement: 

“Saxe, my boy, I saved your life, and I hope 
you’ll do me credit. From a study of the range 
of the trajectory of the bullet, I have learned 
that, had you been in your place at the table, 
the bullet would have penetrated your breast 
at a vital point. My clumsiness was the first 




THE SHOT 


155 


cause of your escape—examine for yourself.” 
He waved a hand toward the sideboard. 

Saxe, his face still grave, nodded assent. 

“I appreciate it, Billy,” he said, “and I’ll not 
forget it, you may be sure. Dave, too, thought 
of it.” 

“Pooh, no thanks to me,” Billy declared, 
embarrassed by the emotion in his friend’s 
voice. “It was only by accident that I inter¬ 
fered—not by volition.” 

“I know,” Saxe agreed. “But the fact 
remains that you were the instrument of sal¬ 
vation, and that is what I shall always remem¬ 
ber.” He looked toward Margaret West as he 
spoke, and saw that her face was very pale. 
He wondered how much of that pallor—if 
indeed any of it—had been caused by his own 
peril. For a fleeting second, the girl’s limpid 
blue eyes met his, then they were veiled by the 
thick lashes. He found himself unable to read 
the meaning that had lain in them. He went 
to his chair, seated himself, and afterward 
twisted about to mark the precise line in which 
the bullet had passed. There could be no man¬ 
ner of doubt: its course had been such that he 
could have escaped only by a miracle, had he 





156 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


been in his place. There could have been only 
a slight variation in the direction of the bullet, 
dependent on the position of the marksman. 
That variation could by no means have been 
great enough to save him from a grave, prob¬ 
ably a mortal, wound. Saxe shuddered, as the 
narrowness of his escape was again, and thus 
visibly, borne in on his consciousness. He 
looked about the cheery room and into the 
faces of the others with a sort of wonder in 
the realization that he was still of the quick, 
not of the dead. The wine of life took on new 
flavor. His gaze went again to Margaret. 

All went into the music-room presently, still 
talking of the event that had been so close to 
tragedy—all except May Thurston. Without 
attracting any attention, she quietly slipped 
away from the others into the out-of-doors. 

There are times when one finds it well-nigh 
impossible to analyze the workings of the mind, 
and it was so with this girl tonight. Suspi¬ 
cion had come to her—suspicion sudden, ter¬ 
rible, irresistible, and she knew not whence it 
came. She fought against it in an effort of 
reason, but she fought in vain. She could not 
flee its clutch, strive as she would. In the end, 




THE SHOT 


157 


she made abject surrender, and fled forth into 
the night, to learn whether suspicion taught 
her truth or a lie. 

May Thurston was a girl of much more than 
average intelligence. Native shrewdness had 
been sharpened by years of association with 
men of ability, to whom her secretarial skill 
had made her valuable. She had drawn from 
them something besides her weekly stipend: 
she had assimilated a faculty for logical deduc¬ 
tions made with lightning swiftness, which is 
not characteristic of women, and is rare among 
men. Often, in fact, its possessor confuses it 
with intuition, because the rapidity of such 
automatic reasoning is so great that its method 
readily escapes the attention of the one using 
it. In the present instance, the girl in her dis¬ 
tress was totally unconscious of the fact that 
she had reasoned with exactness from a group 
of circumstances within her knowledge. Yet, 
this was the case, and to such reasoning, doubt¬ 
less, rather than to intuition, was the strength 
of her suspicion due. Intuitive perception she 
had to the full, and to it, it is likely, she owed 
some measure of the belief that now obsessed 
her, but its origin had been in the reasoning 




158 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


power alone, which she had exercised involun¬ 
tarily, even unconsciously. 

The first fact on which she builded had been 
the expression of terror on Masters' face, 
when she chanced upon him in the wood at 
dawn. Now, she could no longer believe that 
fancy had played a trick on her. On the con¬ 
trary, she was sure of the emotion he had 
shown, and, too, sure of the sinister signifi¬ 
cance of it. It meant guilt. Masters was not 
a timid girl, to be filled with fright at the 
unheralded coming of another in the forest. 
She believed, rather, that he possessed an 
abundance of physical courage, whatever his 
lack of the moral. Nevertheless, at her call, he 
had shown abject fear. The signs of it had 
vanished in the twinkling of an eye; but they 
had been present for an appreciable length of 
time. Since there could have been nothing else 
to cause him alarm in that place, this must have 
been the fear of discovery, which only guilt 
could explain. What that guilt might be, it 
were easy to guess, if one took thought of the 
event that had so recently befallen, where death 
had been avoided by the merest hazard of fate. 
May did not formulate her reasoning in such 




THE SHOT 


159 


wise, but this was the nature of it. From it, 
she drew the conclusion that drove her forth 
alone into the night. As she went her way up 
the slope, intuition whispered that the hideous 
suspicion was truth. 

The moon was just thrusting its bulk of gold 
over the wooded ranges of the eastern shore, 
and its radiance flooded the ascent, up ch 
she mounted with a step that was ur/altering, 
though the heart was sick within her. She 
could see very clearly, and guided her course 
without hesitation toward the point at which 
she had encountered the engineer. 

When she reached the bit of underbrush in 
which she had stopped short on first hearing 
Masters, May peered through the purple dusk, 
and readily made out the outline of the sap¬ 
ling beneath which the engineer had stood 
when she accosted him. She at once niade her 
way quickly to a position immediately below 
its canopy of branches. It was well foliaged, 
yet not so thickly as to prevent her from ob¬ 
serving freely. If, at this moment, anyone 
had asked her what she expected to flnd there 
aloft, she would have been utterly unable to 
make a coherent explanation, and indeed it 





160 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


must have been instinct, rather than reason, 
that now guided her in the search, for, without 
understanding in the least why she did so, she 
stared up into the branches with fixed inten¬ 
sity, her heart beating like the sound of battle- 
drums in her ears. Presently, then, her gaze 
fastener on a line of shadow, high among the 
branche . and on this she held her attention 
concent: ed, though there seemed nothing in 
the appe? ranee to justify an absorption so com¬ 
plete. J was, perhaps, instinct again that 
caused her to feel the importance of this varia¬ 
tion from the green black of the foliage. 
Whether that, or the leaping processes of rea¬ 
son, she was impelled to search out the mean¬ 
ing of the shadow aloft among the branches. 
She lai \ hold of the lower branches, and easily 
swung up into the tree. 

May mounted swiftly until the shadow was 
within resell of her hand. Yet she could not 
distinguish it clearly on account of a branch, 
which held a screen of leaves between it and 
the moon. Putting out her hand, she bent the 
bougf aside, so that the light shone on the 

thing that had drawn her to the spot. She saw 
a rifle! 




THE SHOT 


161 


The weapon had been fastened to the trunk 
of the sapling, at a point where one of the 
larger branches made a fork. The stock had 
been secured in a position that permitted easy 
adjustment, by means of two ropes, which ran 
to other branches, so placed that tightening 
cords would vary the mark toward which the 
rifle was aimed. Masters, from his technical 
skill as an engineer, would have found little 
difficulty in making the arrangement to his sat¬ 
isfaction. May realized at a glance that there 
could be no doubt as to the actuality. Hartley 
Masters had deliberately attempted to murder 
Saxe Temple. A wave of loathing swept over 
her as she grasped this final confirmation of 
the hideous thing she had suspected. In the 
flood of abhorrence for the crime, the last 
remnants of her love were overwhelmed. 

Only one thing baffled her in the understand¬ 
ing of the event. She saw clearly that, the po¬ 
sition of the seats in the dining-room being 
familiar to the engineer, it had been simplicity 
itself for him so to dispose the rifle in the tree 
as to have it trained on the spot occupied by 
Temple’s breast as the unsuspecting victim sat 
at table. It was hardly likely, moreover, 




162 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


that any other would be exposed to peril, since 
the smallness of the room was such that there 
was not sufficient space between sideboard and 
chairs on that side of the table for Mrs. Dus¬ 
tin to pass in her service of the meals. The 
deliberate malignity of the plot was appalling 
to May, as she considered this naked revelation 
of it. She was pallid, shuddering, nauseated. 

The one thing that puzzled her for a time 
was the means by which the criminal had 
been able to secure the discharge of the rifle 
in his absence. It was plain that he had 
devised some method, so that he himself should 
be above suspicion, in the possession of a per¬ 
fect alibi. It would, of course, be absurd for 
anyone to bring an accusation against him, 
when it was the common knowledge of all that 
he had been seated at the very table with the 
one against whom the attempt had been made. 
Yet, she failed to penetrate the method em¬ 
ployed by him in firing the piece, and for a long 
time she puzzled over this in vain. 

Then, at last, her eyes were caught by a 
fragment of cord, which hung from the trig¬ 
ger of the rifle. A brief examination showed 
her that the loose end was charred by fire, and 





THE SHOT 


163 


immediately she guessed the nature of the de¬ 
vice that had been employed. She knew that 
Masters in his work had had much experience 
with explosives, and, in consequence, with 
fuses of various sorts. She understood on 
reflection that he had used in this instance a 
fuse of such length as to permit his lighting 
it a long time before the moment of firing. 
Afterward, he had been able to leave the rifle 
unattended, confident that at the instant de¬ 
signed by him it would be fired automatically 
by the burning of the fuse. But, a minute later, 
it occurred to her that the trigger required to 
be pulled backward in order to discharge the 
weapon. The parting of the string she had 
discovered could by no means effect this. She 
had let the obscuring branch swing back into 
place the while she meditated. Now, she again 
thrust it out of the way, so that the light shone 
in brightly, as she bent to another scrutiny 
of the rifle. Her investigation was instantly 
rewarded, for she perceived a coil of spring, 
which ran from the trigger to one of the 
branches. Its blackness had hidden it from her 
eyes hitherto. The discovery made all clear. 
The cord had held the trigger forward in its 




164 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


usual place, acting against the power of the 
spring. Then, the burning of the string by the 
fuse had left the trigger unprotected against 
the pull of the spring, which, suddenly effect* 
ive, had fired the rifle. The ingenuity of the 
scheme confounded the girl, as she sat staring 
at the evidences of treachery. Yet, in that 
moment of anguish, she was moved to murmur 
a prayer of thankfulness that the knowledge of 
her lover’s character had come to her in time 
to save her life from misery and degradation 
as his wife. 

After a long time crouched there in the tree, 
May bestirred herself slowly and clambered 
down, leaving the rifle as she had found it, with 
the bit of charred string hanging, and the 
spring holding the trigger pulled, as it had been 
at the moment of the shot. It did not occur to 
her that it might be wiser to carry away these 
proofs of attempted murder. Indeed, in that 
first understanding of the guilt of Masters, 
she was too distraught to think clearly. She 
could only feel the vicarious shame that was 
hers by reason of him to whom she had 
accorded her love. Nor did she just then spec¬ 
ulate much as to the exact motive that had 




THE SHOT 


165 


actuated the engineer. She took it for granted 
that he had been influenced to his course by 
motives of greed, as was the fact in the main. 
She supposed that he had thought the murder 
of Saxe Temple would cause a delay in the 
search, by which he might profit to the extent 
of finding the treasure himself. It did not 
occur to her that an older and more primitive 
passion than greed, even, one more savage, 
too, might have driven him on to the crime. 
In her horrified amazement over the deed 
itself, she quite forgot the jealousy that had 
sprung in her heart by reason of her lover's 
devotion to Margaret West. Yet, at that very 
moment, the man who had just striven in vain 
to redden his hands with the blood of a fellow 
creature, was with Margaret West in a bow- 
ered nook of the shore, pouring forth the story 
of his love in passionate phrases. 




CHAPTER XII 

THE SECRET VAULT 


M AY passed a sleepless night, wearying 
her brain in a futile endeavor to see her 
path clearly. She felt that, for the sake of 
what had been, she could not bring herself to 
accuse Masters before the others, or even pri¬ 
vately to his face. Yet, her manifest duty lay 
in some step that should prevent another effort 
by him. She was convinced that he would dare 
no more, when aware of the fact that there 
was a witness to bear testimony as to his guilt, 
and in this she probably reasoned justly. In 
the end, she decided to write him a note, 
informing him as to her knowledge, and warn¬ 
ing him against further pursuit of his evil 
plans, or of herself. She would have the mis¬ 
sive in readiness to hand to him on the occa¬ 
sion of his first appearance at the cottage. 

When she had thus determined, it was time 
to dress, for the day was two hours old. As 
soon as she was clad with her accustomed 
nicety, she wrote the letter to the engineer, and 
then descended to breakfast, pale and wan, 

166 



THE SECRET VAULT 


167 


with heavy shadows under her eyes, but vastly 
relieved that, at last, she had reached a decision 
as to her conduct of the affair. 

The letter thus prepared was not destined 
for delivery that day. Masters did not appear 
at the cottage. As a matter of fact, even his 
egotism was convinced of the sincerity and 
unchangeableness of Margaret West’s rejec¬ 
tion of his suit. He found to his despair and 
wrath that the girl was totally irresponsive 
to his most ardent pleadings. The disappoint¬ 
ment to him was the keener because it was so 
wholly unexpected. The girl had shown plea¬ 
sure in his society from the first, and he had 
anticipated an easy victory, despite his jeal¬ 
ousy of Saxe. Nevertheless, she repulsed him 
with a finality not to be denied. His failure 
was the more exasperating to him by reason 
of the fact that the cause baffled his every 
effort of understanding. 

The truth of the matter lay in a paradox 
concerning magnetism. Masters possessed in 
an unusual degree the magnetism of sex. At 
the outset, Margaret had felt this, without in 
the least apprehending the nature of the at¬ 
traction exerted on her. She attributed it 




168 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


rather to his handsome face and buoyant man¬ 
ner, allied with his undoubted cleverness. 
Later on, as the man’s passion for her devel¬ 
oped, this same force in him, which had 
charmed in its subtler manifestations, became 
offensive to her sensitiveness. Still without 
any suspicion of the cause, she felt herself 
repelled, where before she had been attracted. 
By so much the more as his desire waxed and 
was revealed, by so much the more he grew 
repulsive. In the end, he became altogether 
detestable to her, and in dismissing him she 
made her feeling plain. 

So, Masters did not come that day to the 
cottage, and the note that lay warm on 
May’s bosom was undelivered. Yet his dual 
lack of success in love and in murder did not 
suffice to quench the spirit of the man. Greed 
and passion inflamed his hatred of the rival 
who threatened to destroy his hopes. As he 
went from Margaret at her bidding, his brain 
was already busy with new schemes by which 
to possess himself of the miser’s gold and of 
the woman he loved. The first step toward 
such consummation must be the death of Saxe 
Temple. He was furious against the fate that 




THE SECRET VAULT 


169 


had saved his enemy at the first trial; he was 
determined that at the second there should be 
no escape. 

The night following that on which the shoot¬ 
ing had occurred, Roy Morton passed through 
an experience that afforded him grounds for 
apprehension, although he kept the affair 
secret for a time, in the confident expectation 
of making further discoveries without assist¬ 
ance from his friends. 

It was about two o’clock in the morning 
when he suddenly awakened out of a sound 
sleep. He attributed this awakening to a subtle 
warning from his never-sleeping sixth sense. 
Nevertheless, it is a fact that, in the course of 
an adventurous career, he had acquired the 
habit of sleeping very lightly, so that he might 
be aroused instantly by the slightest sound of 
an unwonted sort, and it is probable that, on 
this occasion, some noise disturbed him. Be 
that as it may, he abruptly found himself broad 
awake and listening intently. 

There was no sound anywhere within the 
cottage. Through the open window came the 
rhythmic chant of myriad insects, the rustling 
of leaves caressed by the night wind—nothing 




170 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


more. Roy was inclined to believe that he had 
been aroused for no adequate cause. Y^et, he 
was disinclined to dismiss the warning of his 
precious sixth sense without further investi¬ 
gation. He got out of bed, threw a bath-robe 
over his pajamas, and set forth on a tour of 
investigation. There was still some moonlight 
shining through the windows of the hall, by 
which he was able to assure himself that 
nothing extraordinary was visible, nor did he 
hear any unusual sound. He descended into 
the lower hall, and there, too, his examination 
failed to show aught amiss. He moved with 
great caution, in order to avoid giving warn¬ 
ing of his presence to a possible intruder, and 
peered into the office and the dining-room. 
Everywhere, he found all in order. He betook 
himself finally to the door of the music-room, 
which he found almost closed, but not quite. 
He pushed it open with much care, and bend¬ 
ing forward, looked into the room. On the 
instant, his eyes were attracted by a light that 
shone clearly against the east wall of the room. 
By this illumination, he perceived a man, who 
knelt, holding a pocket-torch in his left hand, 
while his right was thrust into an opening in 




THE SECRET VAULT 


171 


the wall. 

Roy Morton stared in unqualified amaze¬ 
ment. For the moment, his interest was cen¬ 
tered on the aperture in the wall of the room, 
rather than on the man who knelt on the floor 
before it, with his arm thrust into the recess 
up to the shoulder. In that instant, Roy was 
seized with the conviction that he had stumbled 
upon the treasure of Abernethey by means of 
a monition from his sixth sense, and his heart 
was filled with gladness, both for the sake of 
his friend's fortune thus at last secured, and 
for the sake of his own pride in being the active 
agent in that consummation. He had no doubt 
whatever that the man crouched on the floor 
was Masters, though the face was unrecogniz¬ 
able in the shadow. He even suffered a little 
pang of jealousy that the fellow should have 
succeeded in discovering the golden treasury, 
while he and his friends had so signally failed. 
He comforted wounded vanity, however, with 
the trite reflection that all is well that ends 
well. It seemed, indeed, that the affair had 
now become simplicity itself, since there re¬ 
mained only to watch the operations of the 
thief, and ultimately to possess himself of the 




172 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


gold in his friend's behalf. 

It appeared to the observer that the position 
of the man on the floor left him subject to 
great disadvantage under attack, and that, 
therefore, it were wise not to delay action. 
Roy desired to capture the marauder single- 
handed for the sake of his own greater glory. 
He had no question as to his ability to over¬ 
come the engineer in a hand-to-hand contest, 
despite the fellow’s excellent physique. With 
the idea of taking his enemy by surprise, he 
pushed the door farther ajar, to make space 
for a leap forward. Notwithstanding his cau¬ 
tion, the hinges creaked with a sudden, harsh 
noise, which crashed through the silence of the 
night. In the same second, Roy sprang. 

At the sound of the opening door, the torch 
had clicked into darkness—there was the slith¬ 
ering of rubber-shod feet across the floor. As 
Roy came upon emptiness where had been the 
man, he heard the rustling of the drawn shade 
of a window. He saw dimly against the outer 
light the silhouette of the thief in the opening. 
Before he could move, it had vanished. He 
was after it with all speed, but, by the time he 
stood on the ground outside, he could neither 




THE SECRET VAULT 


173 


see nor hear aught to give an idea as to the 
direction of the flight. He went forward 
blindly, moving here and there haphazard, 
pausing often to listen. There was no reward 
to his efforts, and, after a few minutes, real¬ 
izing the uselessness of longer search, he 
returned to the cottage, where he entered the 
open window. 

It was just as he dropped to the floor that 
a cheering thought came to Roy. The man 
had carried away nothing in his flight. At 
the moment of the door’s creaking, the hand 
had been withdrawn from the cavity within 
the wall, and it had been empty. Evidently, 
the depredator had been interrupted just when 
he had succeeded in coming on the secret place 
of the gold. As he realized this, Roy went 
forward quickly in the direction of the piano- 
lamp, found matches, made a light, and turned 
eagerly toward the recess in the wall. As he 
knelt in the place so recently occupied by that 
other visitor, there was light enough to see 
clearly, and he beheld the safe set behind the 
wainscoting. The steel doors stood ajar; the 
first glance showed that the receptacle was 
empty. 




174 


THE LAKE MYSTFRY 


Amazement was Roy’s dominant emotion 
for the first few moments. It gave place to 
chagrin. He strove to disbelieve the evidence 
of his eyes, but disbelief was impossible. The 
safe was empty. He thrust his hand within, 
and felt about carefully, even as the man had 
done—only to find nowhere so much as a scrap 
of paper that might have held a clue. The 
shock of the disappointment stunned him. For 
a long time, he sat before the opening in the 
wall, squatting motionless on his haunches, 
nursing a swiftly rising rage. 

Roy stood up at last, with an ejaculation of 
disgust. Then, curiosity laid hold on him, and 
he began a careful examination of the vault’s 
mechanism. He pushed the inner doors of 
steel shut, but without turning the handle to 
shoot the bolt. Afterward, he scrutinized the 
portion of the wainscoting that was swung out¬ 
ward to reveal the safe. He moved it to and 
fro, a little way slowly, finding that it was very 
delicately balanced, so that it responded to the 
lightest touch. He inspected the bolts with 
which it was fitted, and sought to understand 
exactly the method of their operation, but this 
persistently escaped him, nothwithstanding his 





THE SECRET VAULT 


175 


knowledge of mechanical appliances. It was 
while he was pulling at one of the bolts that 
the impetus of his effort sent the section of 
wainscoting into its usual place as a part of 
the wall. Roy tried to catch it in order to 
prevent its closing, but he was just too late. 
He tugged at a projection of the carving, only 
to find that the masked door resisted his 
strength. He realized that the bolts had been 
thrust into their sockets by some device auto¬ 
matic in the act of closing. Greatly annoyed, 
he began a hunt for the secret spring by which 
the operation of the bolts must be controlled. 
In this he failed. Try as he would, the wain¬ 
scoting rested there before him in an immo¬ 
bility beyond measure exasperating. He went 
over the entire surface with painstaking care, 
pressing or pulling at each hollow or projec¬ 
tion, and always there was the same irritating 
lack of response. Roy, with his chin thrust 
forward belligerently, toiled on in countless 
futile experiments, only to confess defeat. He 
was worn with fatigue from the monotonous 
labor when at last a distant sound startled him, 




176 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


and he looked around, to discover that day had 
come. Fearful lest he be discovered there, he 
fled to his room, disgusted by the fiasco. For 
the first time in his life, he sneered at that 
delusive faculty, the sixth sense. 




CHAPTER XIII 

THE CLUE 


T O THE astonishment of Roy Morton 
and May Thurston, this day also passed 
without the appearance of the engineer at 
the cottage. The girl, at first experiencing 
some alarm over this protracted absence, 
was afterward filled with relief, when it 
occurred to her that Masters was keeping 
away because he had finally abandoned his 
evil intentions. She felt convinced that the 
failure of his attempt to murder Temple had 
brought him to realization of the heinous¬ 
ness of his conduct. The thought afforded 
her great satisfaction, since it relieved her 
of any necessity for action against him. The 
change in the situation so cheered her that 
she accepted with animation Roy’s invitation 
to walk, and the two passed a particularly 
agreeable hour in strolling through the 
woods, finding each topic of conversation 
charming, and almost forgetting that such 
an one as the engineer encumbered the earth. 
There came another development in the 

177 


178 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


evening, when the four friends were smoking 
and chatting, as was their custom after the 
ladies had retired for the night. They were 
in the music-room with Saxe at the piano, 
where he had been playing from time to 
time. Now, however, he had ceased, and 
rested motionless, with his eyes fixed on the 
sheet of manuscript left by Abernethey, in 
a wearisome wondering as to the message 
that might lie concealed within that bare pre¬ 
sentment of the song of gold—as he had 
come to call the composition. Billy Walker 
had steadfastly maintained his belief that the 
clue to the treasure was hidden there, and 
Saxe was impressed by the idea, although 
his reason declared it folly. 

Presently, Billy aroused himself from the 
luxury of the morris chair, where he had 
been communing with an especially black 
cigar, heaved himself erect with a groan, and 
crossed the room to the piano. He stood for 
a little while in silence, staring down at the 
written page on the rack. 

“What’s that?” he demanded. He pointed 
to the three measures that stood alone at the 
head of the sheet. 




THE CLUE 


179 


Largo 





The phrase to which Billy Walker pointed 
was scrawled in a fashion that was rather 
slovenly as compared with the remainder of 
the manuscript. Hitherto, in spite of the 
many times he had studied the manuscript, 
Saxe had given small heed to this fragment 


























































































180 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


of writing, which preceded the song of gold. 
Now, however, at his friend's instigation, he 
examined it with scrupulous care before he 
spoke. Then, he shook his head in dis¬ 
couragement, as he struck the notes on the 
keyboard. 

“It doesn’t mean anything, Billy,” he 
declared. 

“But what’s it there for, if it doesn’t mean 
anything?” the other persisted. 

“Why,” Saxe answered, “I suppose it’s 
simply that the old man had some sort of 
an idea, and jotted down a note concerning 
it. You see, it’s at the top of the page. He 
did nothing more with it. Afterward, he 
used the same sheet to write the gold song 
on. He was a miser, you know.” 

“Yes, I know,” Billy conceded. “All the 
same, I think, in this instance, he would have 
been comparatively extravagant. I still 
believe that the bit there has some signifi¬ 
cance.” 

Saxe shook his head emphatically. 

“It can’t mean anything,” he repeated, 
drearily. He was fast yielding to dis¬ 
couragement. 




THE CLUE 


181 


For a long minute the two were silent, 
regarding the manuscript intently, with knit 
brows. Then, of a sudden, Billy’s rough 
voice boomed forth a question: 

“Aren’t there letters on a staff of music? 
What are the letters there?” 

Saxe smiled, in some disdain. 

“Much good may they do you!” he said; 
and his tone was sarcastic. “The letters 
are, B, E, D, A, C. Might be a word in 
Magyar, for all I know. It isn’t from any 
language more common, I fancy.” 

Billy snorted indignantly. 

“It’s not altogether impossible that it 
should be a word from some language or 
other,” he answered, stoutly. “But we’ll 
investigate it more closely on an English 
basis first. Now, what—exactly—does that 
Italian word mean, there over the music. 
And what’s it doing there, anyhow?” 

Saxe laughed outright at the utter sim¬ 
plicity of the question from the musician’s 
standpoint. 

“It’s a word to guide the player in his 
interpretation,” he replied. “It means that 
this particular phrase should be played with 


t 





182 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


great slowness.” 

Billy pondered this statement for a time, 
then vented a lusty sigh of disappointment. 
Presently, however, his expression took on 
animation again, for curiosity had hit on a 
new point of interest. 

“What are those two vertical lines doing 
there in the middle?” he asked, eagerly. 

Saxe shrugged his shoulders resignedly. 

“They, too, mean nothing—absolutely 
nothing!” he exclaimed. “They’re in the 
same class as ‘Bedac’. ” 

“According to my theory concerning this 
affair,” Billy asserted with an air of dogma¬ 
tism, “you are wrong in thus dismissing, one 
after another, the possibilities of the situation. 
Now, we have before us a manuscript, which is 
undoubtedly the work of the man who left 
this gold to you, if you could find it. He 
explicitly stated in his communication to 
you that the clue to the hiding-place was 
clear enough. You might infer, since the 
money was left you in this fashion, that the 
clue would be of a musical sort. He was a 
musician. Music was his one specialty. It 
is also your own specialty. It is, then, the 




THE CLUE 


183 


most natural thing in the world to suppose 
that, in one way or another, music would 
play a chief part in this matter. Following 
the sequence of facts, we come next to one 
that follows logically in the line of argument. 
For we come upon a piece of music, which 
is in manuscript. It is actually, we are con¬ 
vinced, a piece composed by the late Mr. 
Abernethey. We have ascertained from his 
secretary that it is written in his own hand¬ 
writing. Finally, we are sure that it is the 
only thing coming directly from him that 
there is in the house, which offers by its 
individuality a possibility of having a cryptic 
meaning of the sort required by us in the 
prosecution of the search. 

“I repeat my firm belief that in this page of 
music lies the clue to the late Mr. Aber- 
nethey’s secret. If I am right, then any 
single character on this sheet may be of vital 
importance. You sneer at ‘Bedac/ which at 
first glance seems gibberish, and nothing 
more. There remains the possibility, never¬ 
theless, that it may have a meaning of prime 
importance to you. A fortune may depend 
on your learning the meaning of that word. 




184 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


Don’t dismiss it after just one glance. Don’t 
sneer at it—and those two vertical lines! 
t You say, they are void of purport. The 
fact is that they don’t belong there—from 
your musical standpoint. Well, they’re 
there, notwithstanding. The late Mr. Aber- 
nethey put them there. Perhaps they stood 
for something to him, in spite of the fact 
that they don’t to you. Anyhow, don’t sneer 
at them—yet. Wait, at least, until you’ve 
really studied them. As far as our present 
knowledge goes, this paper must hold the 
clue. I tell you, it’s worth working on— 
hard!” 

The harsh', sonorous voice in this long 
harangue had soon cut short the desultory 
chat between Roy and David, who had 
listened almost from the beginning with 
attention, while smiling a little at the ear¬ 
nestness of the speaker in pursuing his argu¬ 
ment. 

“Well, Billy,” David remarked, “you’re 
the one to work out the problem on logical 
lines. You’ve told the rest of us often 
enough that we can’t reason.” The other 
two nodded assent, smiling cheerfully on the 






THE CLUE 


185 


nonplused oracle. 

“I’m horribly handicapped by my igno¬ 
rance of music,” he confessed, wryly. Then, 
his rough features settled into lines of 
resolve, and his voice fairly roared in the 
echoing room: “But, by the Lord! I’ll do 
it—I’ll work that thing out, if I have to learn 
music first!” 

There came a shout of laughter from the 
three; the vision of Billy Walker thus 
engaged was too ludicrous! Notwithstand¬ 
ing their merriment, there came no relaxa¬ 
tion of the set purpose in the speaker’s face. 
It was evident that he was wholly sincere 
in his announcement. Indeed, no sooner had 
the mirth exhausted itself than he craved a 
first lesson. 

“Tell me about the letters that are on the 
staff,” he besought Saxe, who good- 
naturedly complied, with a smile still on his 
lips. 

“Then, that’s all the letters there are in 
musical notation,” Billy exclaimed, when the 
instructor paused. There was distinct dis¬ 
appointment in his voice. “Only, A, B, C, 
D, E, F, G. That’s bad. Yet there are two 




186 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


vowels, A and E, and E is the most impor¬ 
tant vowel.” He fell silent, standing move¬ 
less before the piano, with his gaze fixed on 
the manuscript in a brown study. “Bedac!” 
he muttered, after a little; and Saxe, hearing, 
smiled again. “And those vertical lines!” 
he mused aloud. Saxe kindly volunteered 
some information as to the purpose served 
by bars to separate the measures. When he 
ceased, Billy propounded a question, which 
was an affirmation: “Then, there is a mea¬ 
sure with nothing in it?” 

“Oh, in a way!” Saxe replied. “Only, this 
isn’t really a measure. It’s merely a mistake 
the old man happened to make—that’s all.” 

“Why isn’t it a measure?” came the crisp 
demand. 

“Because, if it were really meant for a 
measure, it would contain something, either 
notes or rests, or both.” 

“You may thank your lucky stars I’m not 
a musician,” Billy declared, and he snorted 
loudly in contempt. “You’re hide-bound, so 
to speak, by the technique of your art. 
Thank heaven, I have an open mind. 
Because the thing is different, you assert that 





THE CLUE 


187 


it can’t possibly have any meaning. For my 
part, on the contrary, the fact that it’s dif¬ 
ferent is just why I suspect it to be of impor¬ 
tance. I give the late Mr. Abernethey credit 
for some cleverness. Also, I deem him to 
have been capable of a bit of originality. The 
manner of his will suggests that possibility, 
at least. If he amused himself by evolving 
a musical cipher, I’ll warrant he didn’t con¬ 
struct a mere tonic sol-fa—whatever that 
may be—which any piano-banger could sing 
at sight to this tune here. I’ve always 
thought that much knowledge of technique 
was deadening. Now, I know it. The critic 
knows technique perfectly; the genius never 
does. Here, I’ll take it. You’ll do no good, 
muddling over it!” With this pronounce¬ 
ment, Billy Walker rudely leaned forward, 
and snatched the sheet of music from the 
rack, and stalked away with it to the morris 
chair, leaving Saxe well content with such 
ending of the inquisition. 

It was a half-hour later. Saxe had joined 
Roy and David, and the three were talking 
pleasantly of many things as they smoked. 
Throughout the whole time, Billy had 


i 





188 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


remained huddled in the easy chair, his cigar, 
unlighted, clenched firmly between his teeth, 
his fierce, shaggy brows drawn down, his 
little, dull eyes set steadfastly on the sheet 
of music, which lay on his knees. Occa¬ 
sionally, there sounded an unintelligible mum¬ 
bling from his lips, or a raucous grunt of 
dissatisfaction. Then, with disconcerting 
abruptness, the scholar lifted his head, ran 
his hands roughly through the bristling, 
unkempt thatch of hair, and exploded into 
Gargantuan laughter. 

The three regarded him in perplexity, 
smiling a little under the contagion of his 
merriment. He gave no heed to their ques¬ 
tions for a full minute, but continued his 
rollicking mirth. 

“Well, Tve made the first step toward the 
treasure/' he announced, at last. The rolling 
volume of his voice was more thunderous 
even than its wont. 

Came a chorus of ejaculations and ques¬ 
tions from the others, as they sprang to their 
feet, and crowded about him. 

Billy waved his hand imperiously for 
silence. 




THE CLUE 


189 


“But it’s only the first step, remember!” 
he warned. “The first step! And, inciden¬ 
tally, it proves that I was right about the 
value of this document.” He flourished the 
music aloft, in a gesture of triumph. 

“Tell us! Tell us!” was the cry. 

Billy regarded his friends quizzically. 

“It’s only the first step that I have taken, 
remember,” he admonished. “But, as Saint 
Augustine said, it’s the first step that counts. 
The miser’s gold is somewhere at the bottom 
of the lake.” 

There followed an interval of astounded 
silence. It was broken by Roy with an 
exclamation of bewilderment: 

“But—” he began. Then, he halted in 
confusion. He had been on the point of 
saying something concerning the secret 
vault in the music-room, and had checked 
himself only just in time. The others, how¬ 
ever, had given no attention to his utterance, 
and he sighed with relief. It had flashed on 
him that his own knowledge in a way cor¬ 
roborated the statement by Billy, inasmuch 
as he found the vault empty. 

“How? How?” Saxe was clamoring; 


i 




190 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


David added his insistence. 

Billy Walker preened himself with all the 
pride of a great discoverer, as well he might. 

“It was simplicity itself,” he assured them. 
“It was only necessary for me to learn music, 
and the matter soon became clear.” Saxe 
and the others fairly gaped at the naive 
assumption on the part of their friend that, 
in five minutes, he had mastered the art, but 
they did not care to question his complacency 
just then. “Being unhampered by over¬ 
much technique,” the oracle continued, with 
buoyant self-satisfaction, “I was able to 
investigate with an open mind, examining 
all the facts.” He paused to grin exultantly 
on the expectant trio, and then resumed his 
explanation: 

“I had before me two determined facts, 
which gave no information in themselves, 
but required perhaps only the addition of 
other facts to become significant. Now, 
observe this lone bit of music at the head of 
the page.” He held up the sheet, so that 
the others could note the phrase at the top. 

largo 








THE CLUE 


191 


"The first fact of which I was possessed,” 
Billy went on, “thanks to the tuition in music 
afforded me by Saxe, was this: that the let¬ 
ters of the fragment are, B, E, D, A, C, in 
such order. At the outset of my logical 
examination, I attempted variations in this 
order, as offering the simplest solution of the 
puzzle. After some experimenting, I became 
convinced that the secret was not concealed 
in a changed sequence of the letters. Next, 
then, I set myself to a consideration of the 
second fact. This consisted in the knowl¬ 
edge that the bit of music contained a 
measure that was not a measure. That is 
to say, there was the marking of a measure 
by two vertical lines, but nothing in that 
measure, neither notes nor rests. This 
impressed me as of importance in all prob¬ 
ability. The same fact that led Saxe to dis¬ 
regard it, led me to scrutinize it with 
particularity.” Again, Billy paused, to allow 
his hearers a moment in which to meditate 
on the shrewdness of his reasoning. When 
he went on speaking, his voice carried a note 
of increased contentment: 

“Above this measure that is no measure, 





192 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


this measure that is empty, I perceived a 
pointer, of a size sufficient even to have attracted 
the notice of my friend here, hide-bound in 
technique as he is—but it did not. The 
pointer directed attention straight to a letter 
—a letter placed exactly over the measure 
that isn’t a measure because it’s empty. 
That letter thus pointed out is L. It fitted 
very well into the blank place with the other 
letters. So, where before we had only, B, E, 
D, A, C, we now have, B, E, D, L, A, C.” 
Billy ceased speaking, and surveyed the 
others happily. 

“Well, why don’t you go on?” David 
demanded, impatiently. 

Billy regarded the questioner in genuine 
astonishment, tinged with contempt. His 
gaze darted to the other two, and, on realiz¬ 
ing that they, as well, were still uncompre¬ 
hending, he groaned. 

“Non-rationalizing nincompoops!” was 
his candid murmur of reprobation. “Oh, well, 
I shall explain, if it be possible to your under¬ 
standing, he said gently, with an assumption 
of infinite patience. “As you musical sharps 
are aware, the musical notation comprises only 





THE CLUE 


193 


seven letters, namely-” 

"Oh, never mind that!” Saxe cried. “We 
know!” 

“Pardon me,” was the retort. “You only 
know it as a matter of technical knowledge, 
not as a fact from which to reason. The 
point is that there’s no K in the musical 
scale.” 

“Well?” The monosyllable snapped from 
Roy. His face was set intently, the chin a 
little forward, the eyes hard. 

“The thing is simply this,” Billy answered, 
beaming. “The late Mr. Abernethey, on 
account of the lack of the letter K in the 
musical notation, was compelled to resort 
to an expedient. He could not indicate the 
word ‘Lake’ on his cipher, since he was with¬ 
out either L or K. He evaded the difficulty 
by employing the initial letter from a word 
of direction, Largo, which provided the nec¬ 
essary L, and he got around the lack of the 
letter K by using the French word for Lake 
— lac . This fragment at the head of the 
sheet spells for us, ‘Bedlac’.” He pointed to 
the phrase again, as he concluded. 

“So, we have only to do a bit of translating 





194 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


from the French lac into the English lake, 
and then to amplify by supplying the obvious 
preposition and article, and the writing 
declares clearly: 'The Bed of the Lake/ It 
now remains for us to study this page until 
we learn just where under the water of the 
lake out there the gold is lying. Somewhere, 
somehow, this music tells!” 




CHAPTER XIV 

THE EPISODE OF THE LAUNCH 


T HE clue discovered by Billy Walker was 
accepted without hesitation. No secret 
was made of the information thus obtained 
as the first progress in the search for the 
gold, and an air of excitement prevailed in 
and about the cottage. Jake, especially, was 
all agog with interest in the new develop¬ 
ment, and took an active part in the subse¬ 
quent operations, since the four friends now 
spent much of their time on the water, hop¬ 
ing by some fortunate chance to come on a 
suggestion for further guidance. They went 
cruising out of sheer desperation, having no 
precise idea to follow until more should be 
learned from the manuscript. All pinned 
their faith to the music left by the miser. 
Each spent hours in study of the scrawled 
notes in the quest of added discovery, but 
all efforts were futile. Even the redoubtable 
Billy himself admitted humiliating defeat. 
Yet, he was in no wise cast down by the 
failure of the moment. He was sure of ulti- 

195 


196 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


mate victory for the orderly processes of 
reason. Roy, on the other hand, retained his 
confidence in the final revelation that had 
been foretold by his industrious sixth sense, 
and David shared this optimistic trust in the 
occult. As for Saxe, when day after day 
passed without a hint of new knowledge con¬ 
cerning the gold, he might easily have 
become hopeless, had it not been for the 
diversion of interest offered by his love- 
affair. For now the manner of Margaret 
West toward him was such that sometimes 
he dared believe it possible to win her. 

May Thurston was assured by the con¬ 
tinued absence of Masters that he had aban¬ 
doned further vicious effort. In this view, 
the girl did the indefatigable scoundrel less 
than justice. As a matter of fact, the engi¬ 
neer was very busy indeed. He had kept 
away from the cottage because he feared that 
May might have guessed his agency in the 
attack directed against Saxe, although he 
had taken the precaution to remove the rifle 
and its accessories from the sapling on the 
day after the shooting. He suspected, too, 
that May would learn from Margaret the 




THE EPISODE OF THE LAUNCH 197 


truth concerning his treachery in love—in 
which suspicion he was quite wrong—and 
he deemed himself safer out of the injured 
girl’s sight. So, he kept himself hidden 
from the household of the cottage, while still 
devoting himself to malevolent schemes. 
Hope developed in him that he might yet 
win Margaret West—if only Saxe were out 
of the path. In addition, the removal of this 
rival would allow him another chance, even 
if brief, to search for the treasure. He was 
determined that Saxe should die, straight¬ 
way. To that consummation, he set himself 
with cold-blooded ingenuity. 

It was on a splendid morning a week later 
that the four friends were taking another 
trip in the motor-boat, to examine the 
extreme northern end of the lake. Jake was 
at the steering-wheel, as always, for the 
abundant sunken rocks and shoals forbade 
a stranger as pilot in these waters. Roy sat 
beside the boatman, as his custom was, while 
Saxe and David were in chairs behind, and 
Billy, puffing his black cigar, lounged con¬ 
tentedly in the stern. 

Saxe shook his head impatiently, as the 






198 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


smell of gasoline, instead of the balsamic 
fragrance of the shore, afflicted his nostrils. 
He spoke of the annoyance to David, who 
agreed that the scent was unusually strong 
in the boat that day. 

“Must be a bit of a leak somewhere,” 
David vouchsafed. He called a question to 
Roy, who merely shook his head by way of 
answer. “They wouldn’t get the smell up 
there, anyhow/’ David continued, to Saxe. 
“You see, it’s floating round in the bilge 
right under us, so that we get the worst of 
it.” 

Saxe had just time to wonder, without 
much real concern, whether or not it were 
quite prudent of Billy to be smoking where 
so large a quantity of gasoline was loose— 
then, the catastrophe came—came with 
lightning swiftness—a huge burst of flame 
enveloped them. 

In that first second of horror, common 
instinct driving, the five men plunged into 
the lake. The motor-boat sped on, the 
engines still throbbing. Saxe, as he rose 
from the leap, and tossed his head to clear 
the water from his eyes, chanced to be facing 





THE EPISODE OF TPIE LAUNCH 199 


in its direction, and could see only a swirling 
mass of flames, darting onward toward the 
shore. Then, a cry startled him to concern 
over his companions. He turned quickly, 
and, to his relief, saw four heads appearing 
above the water. In the same instant, relief 
yielded to fear, for one of them vanished 
below the surface. It was David. 

Saxe, who was a practised swimmer, shot 
forward to the rescue in a powerful racing 
stroke. As he raised his head from the water 
a moment later, horror gripped him anew— 
now, only two heads were showing. Billy 
had disappeared. But his emotion changed 
to delight as he covered the short distance 
between him and the place where David had 
sunk, for suddenly two heads rose above the 
water. He saw David supported in the arms 
of Billy, who was treading water in a lazy 
fashion all his own. 

That was the end of the actual peril. Saxe 
aided David on the side opposite Billy, and 
the two had no difficulty, since David, 
though unable to swim, retained his cool¬ 
ness, leaving himself limp to the control of 
his rescuers. The land was less than a 




200 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


hundred yards away, and thither the five 
wrecked men went, and clambered out upon 
the shore, bedraggled, dripping, scorched, 
half-angry, half-dazed by the suddenness of 
it all, but wholly thankful for their escape 
from the dual dangers of fire and flood. The 
chief mourner was Jake, who lamented with 
tears over the loss of the boat he had learned 
to love. 

Presently, the others began to rally Billy 
Walker on his unsuspected skill in the water. 

“When in the world did you ever learn to 
swim?” Roy demanded. “You didn’t know 
how when you were in the university.” 

“No such thing!” Billy retorted, huffily. 
“I could swim before I was seven years old.” 

“But you never did swim during all the 
time I’ve known you,” Saxe exclaimed, 
astounded by the revelation. 

“Certainly not!” was the crisp reply. 
“Why should I? Each person has just so 
much energy to draw on for his use, for all 
purposes whatever. I don’t fritter my 
energy away on trifles, like swimming for 
mere amusement. I prefer to employ my 
vital forces in intellectual pursuits.” He 




THE EPISODE OF THE LAUNCH 201 


paused to grin maliciously at the others. 
“That's where I differ from you chaps—yes! 
But, when the occasion arises, why, then I 
swim." 

Roy and Jake made a trip to the ruins of 
the motor-boat, which had beached itself 
on the north shore, a quarter of a mile to the 
east of the point reached by the men. Mean¬ 
time, the three others started at a leisurely 
pace to the west, skirting the shore until 
they rounded the lake, and turned to the 
south on their way to the cottage. Their 
rate of progress was so slow that within a 
half-hour Roy and Jake rejoined them, and 
with this completion of their number the 
speed was quickened. It was a full five miles 
to the cottage, but the sun and the breeze 
soon dried their clothing; the paths by which 
Jake led them wound through charming 
forest stretches; they were happy anew over 
the gracious gift of life. So, they swung 
forward with free footsteps through the 
miles. Even Billy Walker, who ordinarily 
would groan if required to stroll the distance 
from the cottage to the boat-house, seemed 
for once to have put off lethargy, for he 




202 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


marched at the head of the procession with 
Jake, and set the pace smartly. 

The full significance of the disaster was 
not revealed unti 1 the afternoon of the next 
day, when Jake returned from a second 
inspection of the wreck. His round, wizened 
face displayed evidences of excitement, and 
his tiny eyes were snapping, as he rushed 
into the presence of the four friends, who 
were taking their ease on the landing-stage 
of the boat-house. 

“I found out somethin’!” he announced. 
There was a note of savageness in his voice 
that puzzled the hearers. “I been up to see 
the Shirtso, and I found out somethin’!” He 
stared with gloomy eyes at Roy. “I found 
out what caused that-thar leak o’ gas. The 
feed pipe was cut!” 

“You mean —” Roy questioned, tensely. 

“The feed pipe was cut,” Jake repeated, 
There was rage in his voice now. “And 
somebody done it a-purpose—cuss’m!” 




CHAPTER XV 


THE CHART 

I F WAS the belief of Saxe and his friends 
that the person guilty of the outrage 
against them was none other than Hartley 
Masters. Now, at last, Roy confided to his 
associates the adventure in the night, when 
he had discovered the presence of the safe 
hidden within the wall. The others flouted 
him as he had anticipated over his failure to 
capture the intruder and his subsequent 
inability to learn the secret of the spring in 
the wainscoting. They accepted without 
hesitation his assurance that the night 
prowler had been Masters, and their wrath 
flamed hot against the engineer, who in his 
later effort had not scrupled to attempt the 
murder of five men. They determined to 
take active measures against the fellow for the 
sake of their own safety. Roy volunteered to 
wage a campaign against the enemy, to seek 
out his whereabouts, to trail him, to get evi¬ 
dence against him, and finally to make him 
prisoner. The others, meantime, would con- 

203 


204 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


tinue their quest for further clues to the 
treasure. First of all, they busied themselves 
with hunting for the concealed safe, after its 
exact situation had been indicated by Roy, 
and three days passed in fruitless experi¬ 
menting on the intricacies of the carved 
wainscoting. 

Roy visited the hamlet at the foot of the 
lake, where was situated the hotel in which 
the engineer had been a guest. He learned, 
to his disappointment, that Masters had 
taken his departure a week before. He 
assured himself that this departure had been 
a real one by inquiries at the station. Fur¬ 
ther questioning of residents elicited the 
information that the engineer had thereafter 
been seen by none. Nevertheless, Roy was 
far from being convinced by this information 
that the engineer had actually taken himself 
off. He was, on the contrary, almost, if not 
quite, certain that Masters had merely made 
use of the train for an ostensible departure, in 
order to avoid the possibility of his presence 
in the neighborhood appearing as evidence 
against him in the event of any suspicion 
that might arise. Afterward, as Roy 





THE CHART 


205 


imagined, he had returned to some out-of- 
the-way place in the forest, where he could 
eat and sleep unmolested, and thence spy 
out the land for the execution of his villain¬ 
ous projects. Doubtless in his employment 
as an engineer, he had often lived roughly, 
and the season of the year would make life 
in the open no hardship. Roy, therefore, set 
himself to a search of the countryside, hop¬ 
ing somewhere to chance on a trace of the 
enemy's camp. In this, he was unsuccessful. 
After two days of weary tramping, it occurred 
to him that he could serve his purpose 
equally well by strolling in pleasant paths 
with May Thurston at his side. 

This improved method was adopted. Roy 
told the girl nothing as to his desire of find¬ 
ing Masters, but he told her other things 
a-plenty; and the two of them grew daily 
more content. 

It was Margaret West who finally hit on 
the spring that moved the wainscoting, for 
Saxe had let her know the story told by Roy, 
and she had amused herself by seeking to mas¬ 
ter the mystery. Actually, beyond her 
satisfaction in having succeeded where the 





206 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


others had failed, nothing was accomplished, 
since the vault was empty, and no hint as to 
the disposal of the gold could be gleaned 
from its bareness. Yet, new knowledge of 
the secret was soon to come. 

Billy Walker’s pride of intellect had been 
aroused to the utmost by the difficulty of 
the task that confronted him. Hour after 
hour, day after day, he pored over the manu¬ 
script, of which the cryptic significance ever 
escaped all efforts of his ingenuity. It 
seemed to him that he had, in fact, scruti¬ 
nized every possible aspect in which the writ¬ 
ing might be viewed, and still the veil lay 
impenetrable over the mystery. He would 
have been in despair, had he been of a 
humbler mind, but his intellectual egotism 
would not suffer him to confess defeat, even 
to himself. So, he persisted in the struggle 
to solve this baffling problem—did indeed 
but strive the harder as the days passed. The 
others admitted that the difficulties were too 
great for their overcoming. Billy replied to 
their lamentations with braggart boasting 
that he would yet conquer. Nevertheless, at 
the last, he owed the hint he needed to Saxe. 




THE CHART 


207 


The four men were lounging on the porch 
of a morning. The languor of summer had 
grown within a few days, and the four were 
taking their ease. Billy Walker was 
crouched in the deeps of a huge chair; David 
sprawled on a heap of cushions; Roy 
stretched lazily in a hammock, reminiscent 
of long siestas in the southland. Saxe alone 
showed any evidence of alertness. He sat 
erect at the head of the steps, with the manu¬ 
script of the gold song lying on his knees. 
Ostensibly, his attention was fixed on the 
music. From time to time, he jabbed the 
score impatiently * with a pencil point. But 
often, he shot glances of longing toward the 
stairway, by which, sooner or later, Margaret 
West must descend. Silence had fallen on 
the group. A sense of discouragement was 
in the air. The only sounds were the gossip¬ 
ing of the English sparrows about the eaves, 
the faint rustling of leaves when the breeze 
stirred them, the distressful grunt that 
accompanied any change of position by 
Billy Walker, the whish of a match as some¬ 
one lighted a fresh cigarette. 

The real activity was on the part of Billy, 





208 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


whose mind, while his body lolled, was 
nimbly busy over the miser’s manuscript, 
which his imagination held visible before 
him. Then, presently, he craved the stimu¬ 
lus of a sight of the actual. He hoisted his 
cumbersome bulk out of the chair, and went 
stiffly across the veranda to where Saxe sat 
with the music. There, he stood for a minute 
looking down at the notes. His beetling 
brows were lowering, a low rumble of dis¬ 
pleasure came from his heavy lips, he thrust 
a hand vehemently through the rough shock 
of hair, his small eyes, with the whites 
tainted by jaundice, fairly glared down at the 
elusive script wherein lay knowledge of 
Abernethey’s gold. 

Of a sudden, wonder grew on his face. 
Doubt, fear, hope, joy, followed. He bent 
awkwardly, but swiftly, snatched the paper, 
and immediately stalked off into the cottage 
and up the stairs to his bedroom, without a 
word of explanation or apology. Saxe 
shrugged his shoulders, and smiled whim¬ 
sically. The others paid no attention what¬ 
soever. 

It was a half-hour later when Billy 




THE CHART 


209 


returned to the porch. His manner was 
wholly changed. He was radiant with a 
supreme triumph of pride. The others did 
not look up, as he again seated himself in 
the easy chair. But the man was so sur¬ 
charged with exultation that his mood sent 
its challenges vibrant to their souls. Pres¬ 
ently, one turned to stare at him, and then 
another, and then the third. He met their 
gaze with eyes that were aglow, and a smile 
of delight bent the coarse lips. He nodded 
slowly, as in answer to their mute question¬ 
ing, and spoke: 

“Well, my dilatory friends,” he began 
genially, “your confidence in me, which has 
enabled you to retain your calm while your¬ 
selves accomplishing nothing, was not mis¬ 
placed. After a considerable period of 
unremitting toil over the manuscript left for 
our guidance by the ingenious deceased—by 
the way, Saxe, that song of gold, as you call 
it, is perfectly good music, isn’t it?” 

The three were gazing on Billy Walker 
with wide eyes. Their astonishment was so 
great that, for the moment, they did not 
question the leisurely manner of the sage’s 




210 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


introduction. Instead, Saxe answered tKe 
seemingly irrelevant interrogation obedi¬ 
ently. 

‘It’s perfectly good music— in the sense 
you mean—yes.” 

“Then,” Billy declared, “I take off my hat 
to the late Mr. Abernethey. The reason for 
this burst of enthusiasm on my part lies in 
the fact that out of a perfectly good piece 
of music, he has made, also, a perfectly good 
chart—for our guidance to the treasure. As 
to the chart, I myself speak as an authority, 
since I have found it.” Billy regarded his 
friends with an expression of intense self- 
satisfaction. 

Roy was sitting up in the hammock now, 
with his jaw thrust forward a little, and his 
eyes hard in the excitement of the minute. 
David was goggling, with his mouth 
open in amazement over the unexpected 
announcement. Saxe betrayed his emotion 
by the tenseness of his features, the rigidity 
of his pose, the sparkle in his keen, gray eyes. 

It was evident that the successful investi¬ 
gator was hugely enjoying the sensation he 
had created. He delighted in the importance 





THE CHART 


211 


of his accomplishment, gloried in the stun¬ 
ning effect of it on his companions. He 
smiled broadly, chuckled in a rumbling fash¬ 
ion of his own, and finally lighted one of his 
black cigars with irritating slowness. He 
rather hoped that someone might exclaim 
with impatience against this wanton delay, 
but none did. They endured the suspense 
in apparent calm, moveless, expectant. So 
at last, Billy deigned to proceed with the 
account of his achievement in solving the 
mystery contrived by the miser. 

“I owe the final suggestion by which I 
won out to Saxe/’ he declared frankly, with 
an appreciative nod in his friend’s direction. 
“He, however, really deserves no credit, 
since what he did was merely by chance, 
without any intention, and would never have 
amounted to anything, if it hadn’t been for 
the fact that I happened to see what he had 
done, and to take advantage of it in an 
orderly and logical way. Only, I wish it 
understood that he served as the unconscious 
instrument of destiny in the matter, and as 
such unconscious instrument he should be 
recognized. Probably, I should have arrived 




212 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


at the fact in time without his aid, but to it 
I owe success on this present occasion. ,, 

“What in the world did I do?” Saxe 
demanded, in amazement. 

“I’ll explain in a minute,” Billy replied. “I 
have in mind first to exhibit this to you.” 
He held up a sheet of paper, which he had 
drawn from his pocket. It was of about the 
size of that on which Abernethey’s composi¬ 
tion had been written. It showed two irreg¬ 
ular lines running across it, drawn by pencil. 
“Glance at this, if you please,” he directed. 

The others did so; but their bewildered 
expression showed that they were still unen¬ 
lightened as to the bearing of the scant 
diagram on the revelation concerning the 
hidden gold. Billy chuckled again in con¬ 
templation of their failure to comprehend. 
Then, he brought forth a second sheet, and 
held it, also, for their inspection. In this 
instance, the paper was turned with its 
greater length horizontal, and the two lines 
of the other sheet had been joined, so that 
the one irregular tracing extended over the 
full page. 

David slapped his thigh with violence. 




THE CHART 


213 


“By the Lord Harry, it’s a map!” he cried, 
in glee. “A regular map, Billy, my boy!” 
His eyes bulged forth until they threatened 
to jump from their sockets. 

Roy's jaw shot out a bit farther. 

“Yes, it’s a map,” he agreed; and his voice 
was strangely gentle, as it usually was in his 
moments of greatest excitement. “It’s a 
map. Bully for Billy!” His face lighted 
with a charming smile, and his eyes grew 
soft as he turned them to the rough-hewn 
face of the discoverer, who appeared highly 
gratified. 

Saxe took the sheet of paper out of his 
friend's hand, and studied it with eager eyes. 
For the first time in days, hope leaped in 
his breast. 

“Yes, it's a map,” he declared, echoing the 
others. “But I don’t understand. Tell us, 
Billy." 

Billy actually preened himself, in an 
ungainly manner peculiarly his own, and 
assumed a most pedantic air, as he went 
forward with the explanation: 

“Saxe was sitting here, with his eyes fixed 
on the old man’s manuscript, but with his 




214 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


mind elsewhere. I was here in my chair, 
with all the power of my brain concentrated 
on that same manuscript, trying to get some 
suggestion for working out the tangle. Was 
it merely restlessness under repeated failure, 
or was it an instinct that moved me, or just 
chance? Anyhow, I got up, and crossed 
over to Saxe, and stood looking down at the 
music, although I had every line of it clear 
in memory—as clear as the written page 
itself. But, this time, in spite of the perfect 
recollection I had of it, I saw something 
new. That's how the thing started. It was 
Saxe's doing." 

“Oh, do get on with the explanation," 
Temple urged. “What was it I did? I 
haven't the shadow of an idea." 

“It's simple enough," Billy said. “Just 
absent-mindedly, you sat there with a pencil 
in your hand, and made ticks over certain 
notes. As I looked down at the sheet, my 
attention was especially caught by these, for 
the excellent reason that they had not been 
there before. Without any volition on my 
part, I stood there considering the pencil 




THE CHART 


215 


marks. Within a half-minute, the great idea 
hit me. In the first rush, I was sure it was 
the right one; but I wanted to be alone to work 
it out. So, I just swooped down on the manu¬ 
script, and carried it off to my room. Now, 
to present the case in orderly sequence, here 
is what we may term Exhibit A.” 

Billy took from his pocket a third sheet, 
which he gave to Saxe. This proved to be the 
original manuscript of the music, with the 
pencil markings made by Saxe. The heir of 
Abernethey examined the page closely, but his 
expression of bewilderment did not pass. Roy 
and David left their places to look over the 
other’s shoulder. For nearly a minute, the 
three held their gaze curiously on the sheet. 
Then, of one accord, they looked up, to meet 
the amused glance of Billy Walker. 

“Well?” they demanded, in a single voice. 

“You have observed the pencil marks?” 
came the question; and the three nodded assent. 

This is the manner in which the manuscript 
had been affected by the absent-minded action 
of Saxe: 




216 THE LAKE MYSTERY 



/ // / 
f- 4 1 p -My=f 

'U'/ \f H 

/ /// H 

✓ - ✓ /' 

if -T^Ti 


=4f+ 

Htr 


4 i £ 





■. 

rf 

f 5--jg 

-nM 



“In pursuance of the idea that had come to 
me,” Billy continued, “I next made a tracing. 
I took a piece of tissue paper, and laid it over 
this manuscript. I could then see quite clearly, 
so that it was easy to make the outline I wished. 
I started at the beginning, with the notes 
checked by Saxe, from which I had received 
the hint as to what to do. I started my pencil 

































































THE CHART 


217 


at the first top note in the first line of the 
composition. Then, I drew the pencil straight 
to the second top note, then on to the third, 
and so forth in order. Thus, I drew an irregu¬ 
lar line with the pencil, from one note to 
another, using always the highest notes. In 
this manner, I drew the line indicated by the 
first half of the music, and I liked that so well 
that I kept right on, and made the second 
irregular line, as indicated by the second half 
of the music. By the time this was accom¬ 
plished, I was sure that I had finally got the 
right idea, and that our victory over the old 
man’s cunning would be won. It was, of 
course, obvious that the two irregular lines I 
had secured should be joined in one. You have 
seen the result. Consider Exhibit B.” Billy 
spread out the two papers showing the outlines 
he had drawn, and pointed to that containing 
two lines. 

It had this appearance. 






218 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


Billy completed his account of the matter 
with no diminution in his air of elation: 

“Here, then,” he said, waving aloft Exhibit 
C to emphasize his meaning, “I present to you 
the chart which the late Mr. Abernethey left 
us as a guide to the spot where the treasure 
lies secreted. It is plain enough for even your 
eyes to read, I fancy. The pencil outline is to 



serve us as a map, which we are to follow to 
the gold. It represents—roughly, I take it— 
the sky-line of the country round about. As 
I had only just completed the drawing before 
I came back to you, Eve had no time to com- 
> pare it with the hills hereabouts; but I’m cer¬ 
tain none the less. It’s a matter of inference. 
There remains now only the task of finding 
out what marks the precise point of the hiding- 
place on this line. It seems to me that some 
one of you with knowledge of music ought to 
work out that trifling detail. If not, of course 
I can do it—in time.” 








CHAPTER XVI 


THE HOLD 

B ILLY’S vanity was well content with the 
compliments accorded him by his friends, 
who gave the appreciation that was justly his 
due for persistent effort when they had wear¬ 
ied. It was David whose enthusiasm led him 
to suggest an immediate trip on the lake, to 
learn whether or not they could identify the 
features of the topography shown by the chart. 

The launch, to which they had been reduced 
by the loss of the Scherzo, had a speed of 
twelve miles an hour at its best and under 
Jake’s guidance it carried them swiftly enough 
northward to the broadest part of the lake, 
whence they might readily study the shore in 
all directions. Already, each had familiarized 
himself with the chart, so that it was held 
clearly in a mental picture, while he looked 
about over the sweep of sky-line critically, seek¬ 
ing some resemblance in the rise and fall of 
mountain and hill and in the curving of the 
shore to the irregular tracing made by Billy 
from the music. As the boat ran in a wide 


219 


220 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


circle, first one and then another caught here 
or there some trick of configuration that sent 
him eagerly to compare it with the chart in 
Billy’s hands. But, in each instance, the hope 
was doomed to swift disappointment, for vital 
divergence was revealed between the two. 
There was some disagreement, too, as to 
whether or not the map had reference to the 
windings of the shore, or to the crests and val¬ 
leys of the hills and mountains, as they showed 
in relief against the sky. Billy Walker was 
certain that the chart had been drawn to rep¬ 
resent the sky-line, and Saxe was of the same 
opinion—chiefly, perhaps, because of the oth¬ 
er’s reasoning in which he had come to have 
great confidence, if not absolute reliance. Billy 
argued that the sky-line would be the natural 
guide on which to depend, inasmuch as it was 
bolder, less open to doubts. The indication 
received from this, he pointed out, could be 
at once applied to the shore, since the first 
knowledge gleaned had declared that the trea¬ 
sure was at the bed of the lake. Both Roy and 
David, however, maintained that the chart 
should be taken as copying the indentations in 
a portion of the shore-line. David offered evi- 




THE HOLD 


221 


dence in support of this contention to the effect 
that, whatever the sky-line might show as to 
itself, there could come from it no hint as to 
the distance from the shore at which the gold 
was lying. Billy admitted this, and then to his 
adversary's chagrin, exposed the fact that the 
like difficulty must exist in the event of the 
map being of the shore-line itself—which was 
not to be gainsaid. It was Saxe, who, at last, 
made the discovery of importance. He had 
been staring fixedly at one point of the horizon 
for a full minute; then, he moved over to 
Billy's side, where he alternately regarded the 
chart and the horizon for a considerable inter¬ 
val. 

“Look here, Billy!" he exclaimed, abruptly. 
“Just take a squint at Mount Tabor, over 
there; I learned the name from Jake the other 
day." He pointed to the west, a little to the 
north of them, where one of the highest of the 
peaks of the distant mountains loomed in naked 
maj esty. 

Billy obeyed the request, and readily dis¬ 
tinguished the peak to which Saxe had called 
his attention. 

“Well ?" he questioned. 





222 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


“I want you to notice, too/’ Saxe continued, 
“that the peak is flat on the top for some dis¬ 
tance, and that there’s nothing of much height 
to the south.” 

Billy nodded in assent. 

“All right,” he agreed. “Go on.” 

“Now, look farther north, about two miles, 
or perhaps more. You see another mountain, 
which seems to be almost the same height as 
Mount Tabor, and is flat on top in the same 
way ?” 

There was hardly any delay before Billy 
answered: 

“Yes, I see it. Next?” 

“Well, then,” Saxe continued, with anima¬ 
tion, “you must bear in mind the fact that those 
two peaks are the highest on the whole extent 
of the western shore of the lake. It is, I imag¬ 
ine, very likely that anyone in search for a 
striking object in the landscape would select 
them at the outset as guides, on account of 
their conspicuousness. It’s my belief, after 
looking pretty closely, that Mount Tabor is 
shown by the two G’s above the staff in the be¬ 
ginning of the gold song. Try it running north 
from Mount Tabor, and compare it with the 




THE HOLD 


223 


chart, and see if you don’t find it brings you 
all right to the second high mountain, which 
is marked by the two G’s of the second half of 
the music. And then, keep on, until you come 
to the mountain top, much lower, but also hog- 
backed, which seems to me to be indicated by 
the final C’s of the score.” 

Billy needed no urging. Before his friend 
had ceased speaking, he had brought his whole 
mind to bear in considering the similarities to 
which Saxe called his attention. For five min¬ 
utes, he examined first the undulant horizon 
line and then the chart, which he held out¬ 
spread before him. He and Saxe were in the 
stern seats, while Roy and David had places 
forward, discussing the shore-line, and giving 
no heed to what was going on behind them. 
Suddenly, the voice of Billy Walker boomed 
forth in its fullness: 

“By Croesus, Saxe, you’ve got it! You’ve 
pinned the map to the mountains! Bravo, my 
son!” 

At the outburst, Roy and David faced about, 
startled. They saw the unwieldy bulk of Billy 
swaying with the motion he had imparted to 
the launch by leaping to his feet. He was a 




224 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


figure of joy, with his little eyes glowing, his 
bare head a tangle of wind-tossed hair, his 
harsh features softened by radiance. Even 
Jake had turned in his seat at the wheel, and 
was rigidly expectant. 

“Praise be!” Billy ejaculated, as he waved 
the chart high in a gesture of triumph. “One 
of you, at last, has come to my help. Saxe has 
run the chart to earth—literally.” 

At that, there was a lively display of inter¬ 
est. Jake stopped the engine, and left the 
launch to drift lazily, while he joined the others 
for a study of the map in connection with the 
horizon line discovered by Saxe. Roy and 
David were inclined to be. somewhat skeptical 
at the outset, but they were presently con¬ 
vinced, as they perceived the exactness of the 
correspondence between mountains and chart. 
There was jubilation on the part of all. 

Jake introduced a topic that was lying in the 
mind of each. 

“But I don't understand yet jest where 
'bouts that-thar money of Mr. Abernethey's 
might be,” he remarked. “What about it?” 

“Our esteemed friend has touched on the 
very crux of the matter,” Billy declared, with 




THE HOLD 


225 


a noisy sigh. “We have now attained to all the 
knowledge that we require for our purposes— 
with a single small exception—we don’t know 
where the gold is. Nevertheless, the chart will 
tell us. It’s there—somewhere—Saxe has 
done nobly in coming to my assistance. It 
seems to me that, now, it’s the turn of either 
Roy or Dave.” Billy laughed, and then 
assumed an expression of elephantine demure¬ 
ness. “Roy is something of an expert in occult 
things,” he suggested, with his eyes twinkling. 
“It might be a good idea for him to try his 
powers on this. The divining rod, in the hands 
of the gifted, will locate precious metals, as 
well as water, under the surface of the earth. 
Doubtless, it will do as much for gold under 
water. It is probable that Jake can inform us 
as to where witch-hazel is to be found in the 
woods. With a twig of that for wand—I be¬ 
lieve it is the accepted wood—let Roy go wan¬ 
dering over the lake in the launch; let him hold 
the divining-rod in his hand until it shall dip 
toward the water. Let a buoy be floated there 
to mark the spot, and there will we dredge, and 
there will we bring up the old man’s treasure.” 

Roy sniffed, while Saxe and David smiled 






226 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


over Billy’s bombast. But Jake took the sug¬ 
gestion seriously, and nodded his approval. 

“Alius hearn it would find gold and silver,” 
he said, “but I hain’t never seen it done. It’s 
fine for water, though, and that I know, havin’ 
seen it work many a time, It bent, and they 
dug, and the water come, and that’s all they 
was to it.” 

Two hours after he had retired that night, 
Billy Walker was rudely awakened out of a 
sound sleep. In a dream, which had been of 
a curious, but most agreeable heaven, where 
he was dining on dishes that were puzzles, each 
one to be solved before it could be eaten, he was 
instantaneously transported to a vile groggery 
of the water-front in a seaport town, where 
a horde of rapscallions pounced on him with 
intent to shanghai. He awoke to behold in the 
moonlight Saxe, who sat on the edge of the 
bed, jolting him violently to and fro. When 
his brain was sufficiently clear, he demanded 
the meaning of this outrage. The first words 
from his friend were consolation enough. 

“Billy, I’ve found the place!” 




THE HOLD 


227 


There was no need for apology, since the 
disturber of his slumbers had brought to Billy 
Walker the news he most desired. Instantly, 
he was questioning. 

“Quick! Tell me! How’d you find it! 
Where is it?” 

Saxe laughed happily. 

“I must give you one final lesson in music, 
to enable you to understand. It's so simple! I 
can’t guess why I didn’t get it in a second.” 

“The most obvious thing is often the most 
obscure,” came the oracular paradox. 

“A hold in music,” Saxe explained, “is a 
mark which shows that a certain note is to be 
sounded for a time longer than is demanded 
by its value otherwise.” 

“Well ?” There was excitement in the harsh 
whisper. 

“Wait until I’ve lighted the lamp,” Saxe 
said. In a moment it was done. “Now, take 
another glance at the gold song itself—not the 
chart.” He pulled the sheet from a pocket of 
the dressing-gown that he wore over his 
pajamas, and held it up before Billy’s face for 
inspection. 




228 THE LAKE MYSTERY 


Largo 



■ JU.J- it r 


J-8- 



-*- 

ft ■■■ a ■■ E H -t; =-• "3 -1 






r* 





- - » v 2 * J V s - 

1 ' p r 

» i s* 

r f 

1. 





- t iTTf ■ 



!>. J J- 

j 

t p f 



. / k MM 7 W 









“That shaded half-circle,” Saxe went on, 
“with a period in the concavity, over the second 
measure of the second half of the gold song, is 
a hold—a hold—a hold, Billy! Don’t you un¬ 
derstand? Isn’t it plain? That marks the spot 
where the gold is—I know it does. That’s the 




















































































THE HOLD 


229 


place where we pause, where we hang on!” 

“Of course!” Billy Walker’s voice had a 
tone of complete satisfaction. “You’ve done 
splendidly, Saxe. With much training, I believe 
I might be able to make something out of your 
intellect. The chart will show just what part 
of the shore is indicated by this hold. The gold 
will be at that point—probably, close to the 
bank, but certainly under the water, for the 
first lesson read, ‘The Bed of the Lake/ We 
shall find it without Roy’s divining-rod, after 
all.” 




CHAPTER XVII 

MASTERS AGAIN 


I N THE hour preceding dawn, Roy gave 
over his fight against an unaccustomed 
nervousness that had kept him awake, rose, 
took a sponge bath, shaved, and dressed him¬ 
self for the day. He stole from the room, and 
quietly let himself out of the house, in confi¬ 
dent expectation that the outdoors charm of 
dawn would soothe the unrest of his spirit. A 
slight noise arrested his attention as he went 
toward the north end of the cottage. He was 
wearing tennis shoes, of which the rubber soles 
made no sound on the ground, and he went for¬ 
ward with caution, his curiosity aroused, for 
he was certain that he caught a sibilant whis¬ 
per. Already, there was a rosy grayness steal¬ 
ing on the air, so that he could see, though 
dimly. As he came to the corner of the house, 
he halted, and peered covertly forward. He 
could distinguish a shadow that moved a little. 
As his eyes grew accustomed to the twilight, he 
made out that there were two forms there, one 
much the larger. Again, his ears detected a 



MASTERS AGAIN 


231 


faint whispering, too indistinct to be under¬ 
stood. Then, one softly spoken phrase came 
clearly: 

“Come away—they’ll hear us.” It was the 
voice of the engineer. 

Roy’s muscles tensed for the leap forward. 
But he remembered the fact that as yet there 
was nothing in the way of direct evidence 
against Masters. He and his friends believed 
in the man’s guilt, but there was no proof. Now 
something might be said that would serve to 
convict the engineer of his crimes. Roy de¬ 
termined to listen, to learn what he might. 
The two who had met thus mysteriously moved 
toward the northeast, going swiftly toward the 
shore of the lake. At a safe distance behind 
them, Roy followed. 

The couple halted in an open place on the 
lake shore, where a cliff dropped sheer to the 
water some thirty feet, as much more to the 
bottom of the lake. Roy contrived to make a 
slow progress to a point in the undergrowth 
above them, hardly a rod away, and here he 
was able to understand every word spoken be¬ 
tween them. And now, fire of wrath, kindled 
by jealousy, burned fiercely in Roy’s bosom, 





232 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


for there came to him the voice of the smaller 
of the two persons, and it was the voice of a 
girl—the voice of May Thurston. Strangely, 
the idea that she could be the one thus to meet 
the engineer by stealth had not occurred to him 
hitherto, and the shock of the discovery came 
near to robbing him of his self-control. In¬ 
deed he made a movement to dart forth, but 
again his action was checked by the command 
of reason, though through evil seconds he 
fought against obedience. Then abruptly, his 
mood changed as he caught the significance of 
the dialogue between the speakers: 

“I knew it was you,” May was saying, in a 
voice vibrant with horror, which she strove to 
repress. “I knew it was you that first time, 
for I went up there, and found the rifle in the 
tree where you had been when I met you in the 
morning. I supposed, of course, that you 
understood how I knew, and so you wouldn’t 
dare to try again. And I thought you had 
gone. Thank God, I couldn’t sleep tonight, and 
came out in time to see you light that fuse— 
in time to put it out before you could stop me. 
I shall tell them everything in the morning, the 
first thing.” 





MASTERS AGAIN 


233 


There was a note of finality in her voice. It 
was evident that whatever tenderness she had 
felt for this man had been overwhelmed be¬ 
neath the flood of her loathing for his crimes. 
Masters must have understood perfectly the 
uselessness of all effort to persuade her from 
her purpose, for he wasted not an instant in 
argument; instead, he acted. 

Before Roy could make a movement to inter¬ 
fere, the engineer had leaped forward. His 
long, powerful fingers closed in a strangling 
grasp on the soft, white throat of the girl, 
sank viciously into the tender flesh. May's 
eyes protruded, her arms straightened out in 
a spasm of physical anguish, but no sound 
issued from the parted lips. Almost in the 
same second, Masters shifted his grip with 
lightning speed to her waist, lifted her easily, 
and swung her from the cliff out into space. 
Then, he went crashing off into the wood, run¬ 
ning blindly, ere yet came the splash made by 
the girl's falling body as it entered the water. 

Perhaps Masters did not hear the second 
splash, which followed after the briefest inter¬ 
val. If he heard, and thought of it at all, he 
probably deemed it caused by some rock his 





234 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


movement had set rolling over the cliff. Assur¬ 
edly, he never dreamed that there had been at 
hand a man to plunge after his victim, to save 
her from the death to which he had assigned 
her. In his intimacy with May, he had learned 
that she could not swim. In that deep water, 
where the naked cliff rising vertically offered 
no hand-hold, she, in her dazed condition, could 
have no chance to escape alive out of the peril 
into which his cruelty had cast her. Such was 
the engineer’s belief, and his feeling was 
merely of satisfaction in thus having rid him¬ 
self of the witness who knew his blood-guilti¬ 
ness. 

Even as his body clove the air in the long 
dive to the water, Roy was conscious of a pang 
of regret that he must suffer the enemy to 
escape. Then, he was beneath the surface, 
groping vainly. As his head shot clear again, 
his eyes glimpsed May’s head just disappearing 
near at hand. In a moment, he had reached 
her, was in time to seize her before she 
sank again. He was at home in the element, 
and, as the girl was unconscious, and so 
offered no resistance by a struggle, his task was 
all the easier. He quickly brought her to the 




MASTERS AGAIN 


235 


shore, at a point where there was a break in 
the cliff, and the ground sloped sharply to the 
level above. He did not pause until he had 
carried her in his arms to the top of the bank. 
There, he laid her 5 face downward on the 
ground, then lifted her by the waist, so that 
the lungs might empty themselves of water. 
Afterward, he chafed her face and hands, and 
soon, to his great relief, she showed signs of 
returning consciousness. As she had been im¬ 
mersed for so brief a time, she speedily made 
a complete recovery, save for the weakness 
consequent to the shock of the whole experi¬ 
ence. Indeed, her wretchedness was rather 
from the violence of the engineer’s attack than 
from the little water she had swallowed before 
her rescue by Roy. 

It was after the first confused questioning on 
her part, and Roy’s account of his presence 
on the scene, that she gave an explanation of 
the events that had led to the attempt against 
her life. She, too, had sought relief from 
wearisome wakefulness by wandering abroad 
in the night. While she was close to the cottage, 
yet in the shadows of the wood, she had heard 
a sound that attracted her attention, and had 





236 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


watched carefully. There was a long silence 
before her interest was rewarded, but at last, 
she made out a movement on the north wall of 
the cottage itself, which was only a little way 
from her. Observing closely, she perceived 
that the object was a man, who was descending 
a ladder. It needed no more to fill her with 
alarm, and with fear came suspicion, which 
was almost certainty, as to the identity 
of the prowler. At first, however, she 
remained quiescent, doubtful as to her right 
course of conduct, anxious, if it were in any 
wise possible, to avoid alarming the house¬ 
hold. During her period of delay, the man 
disappeared with the ladder, but he returned 
immediately, and forthwith she saw a match 
struck. It was extinguished at once, but, as 
the flame died out, she beheld a glowing spark, 
which remained against the wall. Even as she 
stared, it seemed to mount upward very slowly. 
She believed, then, that the desperate man had 
determined to set the cottage on fire, and a new 
horror gripped her, so that the scream she at¬ 
tempted did not pass her lips. In an instant, 
she had reached the cottage—she caught the 
spark between her palms, and smothered 





MASTERS AGAIN 


237 


the fire. Before she had time to under¬ 
stand the situation, she was hurled back¬ 
ward, and found herself in the arms of 
Masters, who was whispering fiercely in her 
ear to be silent. Without giving him any heed 
at first, she mechanically examined her 
smudged hands, and found that she held in 
them the charred end of a cord. As she drew 
the length of this to her, it came readily, and 
she was aware that it had broken from its 
fastening under the impact of the man's leap 
on her. She knew, also, that this thing she was 
holding was a fuse. Her quick intelligence 
grasped the truth that the treacherous engi¬ 
neer, who now embraced her so roughly, had 
again sought to destroy his enemies. She was 
so agitated by the realization, so distraught by 
the thought that she was lying helpless within 
the criminal's arms, while he held a hand over 
her mouth to silence her shrieks, that she even 
welcomed the suggestion overheard by Roy as 
to their moving to a greater distance from the 
cottage. The remainder of the incident was 
already known to her savior. 

As she ended her story, May, overwrought, 
began crying softly. There are times when the 




238 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


simplicity of direct physical contact avails 
more than any magic of words to tell sympathy 
and love. It was so in this instance. Wet and 
bedraggled as he was from his descent into the 
lake, Roy drew into his arms the crouched form 
of the girl, and held her closely, while from 
them the rivulets slid silently away downward, 
to seek again the lake from which they had 
been ravished. The girl was first startled, then 
soothed, then wondrously content. The dawn 
came, stealing softly, and the light fell on them 
as a blessing. 




CHAPTER XVIII 

DUX FACTI FEMINA 


R OY was aroused to sudden consternation, 
when a lull in his ecstatic emotion let him 
once again think of mundane things, for it 
flashed on him that the explosive to which the 
fuse had been attached still remained in Saxe’s 
chamber. In a word he explained the matter, 
and the two hastened to the cottage, where 
after a quick embrace they separated, May go¬ 
ing to her room, to change into dry clothing, 
and Roy running to his friend. He entered 
Saxe’s chamber cautiously, yet moving rapidly, 
lighted the lamp, and looked about him. At 
once, his eyes fell on the bomb, which rested on 
a bureau, near the head of the bed. From it 
extended the remnant of fuse, which ran out 
through the open window. Roy drew this in, 
took up the bomb carefully, for he was not sure 
how sensitive it might be, and made his way 
out of the room, without awakening the 
sleeper. Within a minute, the instrument of 
crime was reposing innocuously on the bed of 
the lake, whither Roy had tossed it from the 

239 


240 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


cliff. On his return to the house, he aroused 
his friend, and told of the latest attempt on the 
part of the engineer. Saxe was profoundly 
impressed by the narrowness of his escape 
from death, or mutilation. Nevertheless, his 
feeling was less by far than it must have been, 
but for his midnight discovery concerning the 
miser’s cipher. Without pausing to dress, he 
hurriedly related the fact to Roy, who was 
equally impressed. To make the matter wholly 
clear, Saxe would have exhibited the music to 
Roy, showing the place occupied by the hold, 
but the manuscript had mysteriously disap¬ 
peared. The two hunted through the room 
thoroughly, although Saxe was sure that the 
sheet had been left on the bureau when he 
returned from Billy Walker’s room. There 
was no trace of it anywhere, and presently they 
abandoned the search, to stare at each other in 
bewilderment. It was Roy who first reached 
a solution of the puzzle: 

“It was Masters took it—of course!” he 
declared, savagely. “He’s been snooping 
around, heard us talk of it probably, and, when 
he got here tonight, he simply swiped it.” 

“But it’ll do him no good.” Saxe protested. 




DUX FACTI FEMINA 


241 


“But he thinks it will,” Roy retorted. “Any¬ 
how, he's made off with it. Perhaps he thought 
it would tie us up—and so it will. We must 
have it back." His jaw shot forward, and his 
eyes grew hard. 

Saxe, however, smiled, and shook his head 
in denial. 

“Not a bit of it," he asserted. “I can repro¬ 
duce that music in ten minutes, every mark on 
it. I know where the hold was, exactly. For 
that matter, I don't need the music. The chart 
will do just as well, for I know the place on it, 
too. But I’ll do the music over for Bill and 
the rest of you. I'll do it as soon as I'm 
dressed, before I come down to breakfast." 
And as he said, so was it. When he appeared 
at the breakfast-table, he carried with him an 
exact duplicate of the old miser's manuscript. 

There was much lively interest on the part 
of all, when the adventure of the night was 
made known, and May on her appearance was 
hailed as a heroine of melodrama. To the 
astonishment of all save Roy perhaps, the girl 
was more radiant than they had ever seen her 
hitherto, and the color in her cheeks and the 
brilliance of her charming eyes, now undisfig- 




242 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


ured by the businesslike lenses of the secretary, 
rendered her beauty so striking that the men 
regarded her with new admiration, while 
Margaret West, from the instinct of a woman 
whose own heart is full of tenderness, 
regarded her friend with a gentle suspicion 
that there remained something of the adven¬ 
ture yet untold. 

Roy was eager to devote the day to a search 
for the capture of Masters, but the others were 
opposed to this. It was finally decided that the 
quest for the hiding-place of the treasure must 
be carried on without a moment of delay, since 
the matter of the short time now remaining, 
only a week, could not be ignored. As to the 
evil devices of the engineer, it would be suffi¬ 
cient to take precautions against them by keep¬ 
ing watch through the coming night and aft¬ 
erward until the end of the hunt for the gold. 
So, as soon as breakfast was done, the four 
friends set out in the launch with Jake for a 
survey of the territory indicated by the hold. 

This, as was clearly apparent from exam¬ 
ination of the manuscript, was on the lake 
shore at a point opposite one of the low peaks. 
It was easily distinguished by its nearness to 






DUX FACTI FEMINA 


243 


the second of the highest summits, as it was at 
the first point of rise after a long descent. The 
course brought them again to the north end of 
the lake, to a place close to the extreme end. 
There was a cove here, which ran inland for a 
half-mile. Within the curve of the shore, a 
few small islands were scattered, and outside 
the miniature bay a larger island stretched, 
one of the chief on the lake. 

It was Roy who now assumed charge of the 
expedition, by right of his varied experience 
in wild places, which had included the tracking 
of cattle-rustlers and outlaws. He directed 
that first a landing should be made, and the 
shore at the point indicated gone over carefully 
for any slightest trace of footsteps, or other 
marks, which might show operations in connec¬ 
tion with the removal of the treasure. If 
found, such a trail would doubtless guide them 
in their further quest of the gold at the bottom 
of the lake. They spent three hours at the 
work, and finally abandoned it in despair, for 
their investigation had been exhaustive, with¬ 
out revealing aught. 

Billy Walker delivered himself forcibly, 
when at last a council was called. Since he had 




244 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


toiled steadfastly with the others, notwith¬ 
standing his distaste for physical exertion, 
there could be no question as to his sincerity 
when he argued against any further effort in 
this direction. 

“I’ve learned from Jake,” he explained, 
“that the late Mr. Abernethey understood the 
management of his boats perfectly, and on oc¬ 
casion used them without taking any one along 
to help him. It is, therefore, reasonable to 
suppose that he would have transported the 
money to its hiding-place in one of the power¬ 
boats. He had no horse, and his feebleness 
was such that he could not have lugged all that 
weight of gold, even if he divided it into small 
amounts, for this place is four miles from the 
cottage—almost as far as we walked the other 
day. Now, we know that the treasure is at 
the bottom of the lake. That was the first 
thing the manuscript taught us. I’m sure he 
brought it here in -the boat. There is no rea¬ 
son why there should be any mark on the 
shore. I say this: We’ll go back, and have 
luncheon. Then, we’ll return here, and insti¬ 
tute an orderly, exhaustive search of the lake 
bottom. We must rig up some sort of grap- 




DUX FACTI FEMINA 


245 


pling irons, and anyone so wishing can become 
a diver, and search the bottom that way. Any¬ 
how, we know the gold is down there. It’s up 
to us to find it. I will say, I think the old man 
has done his part.” 

This plan was duly carried out. As soon 
as the young men had left the luncheon-table, 
they scattered to gather the necessary materi¬ 
als for their equipment in the next stage of the 
undertaking, following the suggestions of Billy 
W alker. 

Saxe had just descended the steps of the 
porch when he heard his name called. He 
turned, and saw Margaret West, standing 
half-way between him and the shore, a little to 
the south from the cottage. At the moment, 
there was no one else visible. Saxe hurried 
toward her, his face flushed with pleasure at 
the summons. Recently, she had seemed a bit 
more distant in her attitude toward him, and he 
had been tortured by those alarms that are the 
heritage of all lovers. At this moment, how¬ 
ever, her face was radiant, and her limpid blue 
eyes were sparkling with eagerness. As he came 
near, she spoke, and there was a thrill of de¬ 
light in her voice, which set his heart bounding. 




246 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


“Oh,” she said, clasping her hands on her 
breast in a quaint gesture of emotion, “I hope, 
I really believe that I may be able to help you.” 

“You!” Saxe exclaimed, in manifest sur¬ 
prise. “Why, what do you mean? Help me 
—how?” 

“It’s about the gold,” Margaret answered. 
There was timidity in her tones now, as if his 
evidence of astonishment had distressed her. 
“I think, I’m almost sure, that I know some¬ 
thing you ought to know.” 

Saxe’s amazement increased. Somehow, at 
the back of his mind, there had always lingered 
the abominable statement made by Roy as to 
this girl, that she was his natural enemy, that 
she must be such by the circumstances of the 
case, since his success would be her direct loss 
of a large sum of money. He had scorned the 
idea when it was presented to him; he had 
never for a moment allowed it entertainment; 
his love for the girl was sufficient to deny the 
possibility of her being in any way influenced 
by sordid things. Yet, always, the thought had 
lurked in the background for the reason that it 
had once been voiced by his friend. Now, at 
her display of interest in his behalf, his first 




DUX FACTI FEMINA 


247 


emotion was wholly of surprise from the unex¬ 
pectedness of the event, and this was followed 
swiftly by joy that thus she should have 
proved Roy’s saying false. The new feeling 
was undoubtedly shown in his face, for, as she 
regarded him intently, Margaret’s expression 
grew lighter again. She went on speaking 
with new animation: 

“You know, I was here once before, when I 
was a little girl, visiting my cousin. He was 
different then—not lively, or gay, or anything 
like that, but I don’t think that the miserliness 
had got such a hold on him. Anyhow, he went 
about with me a great deal, and we really had 
ever so good times together. He often took 
me out in the launch. One time in particular 
is the thing I must speak to you about, for he 
took me up in the neighborhood where you 
were today. I’m sure of that, for I know just 
where you went from what you said at lunch¬ 
eon. Do you wish me to go on?” 

“Do I wish you to ?” Saxe cried. “We need 
all the help we can get. Of course I wish you 
to. The only thing is that I wonder you’re 
willing. It doesn’t seem right that you should 
rob yourself by giving assistance to your nat- 




248 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


ural enemies.” He smiled whimsically, as he 
thus paraphrased Roy’s accusation against the 
girl. 

“Nonsense!” was her energetic retort. “I’m 
not quite so poor as to worry over the money 
part of it. It seems to me that you ought to 
win—I think my cousin meant you to. Besides, 
I’d like to see you do it, just to disappoint Mr. 
Masters. But let me tell you, I’m still afraid 
of him. He’s a desperate man, who’ll stop at 
nothing, even murder, as you know. And he’s 
mad to get that money. So, I want to help you, 
and to beat him. But, of course, my idea may 
amount to nothing, really—after all.” 

“Tell me,” Saxe said, simply. He was beam¬ 
ingly happy, and the fact showed plainly 
enough in his eyes and smile. The girl flushed 
a little under his glance. 

“There’s an island up there,” she said pres¬ 
ently; and her voice was strangely soft for a 
statement so prosaic. “It lies in the entrance 
to the cove, before you come to the other 
islands. They are smaller, too. You noticed 
it, perhaps?” She glanced up at Saxe inquir¬ 
ingly, then her eyes drooped again, as he 
nodded assent. 




DUX FACTI FEMINA 


249 


“That,” she continued briskly, “was one of 
the places to which my cousin took me. What 
I learned that day may be just the thing you 
need to know now: There's a cave on that 
island.” 

Saxe regarded the girl in dismay. This in¬ 
formation was not what he had anticipated. 
He did not know just what he had expected, 
but certainly it had been nothing like this. 

“A cave!” he exclaimed, weakly. “But the 
gold's at the bottom of the lake, you know.” 

Margaret moved her head in assent. 

“Yes, I know,” she agreed. She was not in 
the least disconcerted by the obvious disap¬ 
pointment on the part of her listener. On the 
contrary, a mischievous dimple pitted the rose 
of her cheek. “Just the same, the cave might 
have something to do with your affair.” 

“I don't understand,” Saxe objected. 

“The cave runs downward,” she said; and 
she waited for the meaning of her words to 
penetrate his consciousness. They did so, 
presently. 

“Oh, the cave runs downward,” he repeated, 
thoughtfully. “I begin to understand.” 

Margaret met his gaze frankly, and nodded 




250 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


assent to the idea that had arisen in his mind. 

“Yes,” she went on, “the cave is really 
larger than you might fancy from the size of 
the island, and the passage slopes downward, 
though not very steeply. We didn't go far. I 
don't know the length of it. Cousin Horace 
didn't know—then. In the cave, there are 
plenty of places where the gold could have been 
hidden. So, I thought I'd tell you.” 

“Bless your dear heart!” Saxe cried. “I 
believe you've saved the day for us. The 
chances are, we'd never have got to searching 
the island even, without your help.” 

“You might have missed the cave, if you had 
gone over the island,” Margaret said. “It isn't 
at all easy to find, I can tell you. I don't know 
how my cousin happened on it. He told me 
that, as far as he knew, there was no one else 
aware of its existence.” 

A great volume of sound shattered the air. 
The two turned toward the boat-house, and 
saw Billy Walker, who made an imperative 
gesture, and shouted again: 

“All ready! Hurry along!” 

But, as Saxe turned to the girl, to say good¬ 
bye, she stayed him. 




DUX FACTI FEMINA 


251 


“Wait!” she commanded. “I don't wish the 
others to know—yet. You see, it might come 
to nothing, after all. How would it do, if I 
were to go with you in the canoe? Then we 
could land on the island, and investigate, and 
afterward, if you found things promising, you 
could tell the others. What do you think?” 

Saxe was in a whirl of delight. Thus far, 
he had never enjoyed the like opportunity to 
be with the girl whom he loved. His heayt 
leaped at the thought of it, and his eyes were 
tender and happy as they met hers. 

“What do I think of it?” he repeated. His 
voice was so charged with adoration that the 
rich color flooded Margaret's cheeks. “Why, 
I think it will be splendid! Shall we start right 
away?” 

The girl laughed, in some confusion, and her 
glance wandered from him. 

“Not this very second,” she protested, “for I 
must change into something different for pad¬ 
dling. Go down and send the others along, and 
I’ll be with you in ten minutes—no, fifteen.” 

Saxe, waiting on the dock with the canoe 
already launched, smiled a trifle grimly, and 
admitted that the dearest woman in the world 




252 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


was essentially feminine, for his watch indi¬ 
cated the half-hour since their parting. It was 
just as he slipped the timepiece back into his 
pocket that he heard the laughing voice behind 
him: 

‘Tm just on time to the second, am I not?” 

Saxe turned, to see Margaret, in workman¬ 
like gray sweater and short skirt. His gaze, 
though fond, was mildly reproachful. 

“It's been just half an hour,” he declared. 

‘Then, Fm on time, to the second as I said.” 
The girl beamed on him, quite unabashed. 

At this astonishing statement, Saxe opened 
his eyes in wonder. 

“But you said —” he began. 

“I said fifteen minutes,” Margaret inter¬ 
rupted. “Of course, you know that you must 
always double a woman’s time.” 

“I didn’t know,” the young man confessed, 
smiling. 

“Yes,” Margaret continued, as she knelt in 
the bow of the canoe. “The time estimated 
must always be doubled. The trouble is that 
some women make the time triple, or worse, 
with no certainty about it. They bring the sex 
into disrepute, and we others, who are exact, 




DUX FACTI FEMINA 


253 


get included in the general condemnation.” 

Saxe, in the stern, watched the graceful 
swing of the girl's arms as they plied the pad¬ 
dle, the litheness of the slender body as it 
swayed slightly to and fro, watched the sheen 
of the sunlight that touched to new glories the 
gold of her hair, watched the wonderful curve 
of white, softly radiant from the pulsing blood 
beneath, which ran from the low neck of the 
sweater to lose itself within the wind-tendriled, 
shimmering splendor of her locks. And she, 
this girl so magically beautiful, so wholesomely 
sweet, so divinely complex, so heavenly simple, 
this adorable creature had come to aid him at 
her own loss—she, his natural enemy! 

They came at last to the island, where the 
canoe was beached on a sandy slope. The 
launch was out of sight, somewhere beyond 
the islands, within the cove. Margaret led the 
way without hesitation up the steep ascent that 
lined the shore, and then over a boulder-strewn 
level toward the center of the island. Pres¬ 
ently, the ground became uneven, with sharp 
rises, and gullies running between these. 
Within the ravines, there were small cliffs, 
rugged, disposed topsy-turvily. Saxe began 




254 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


to see the possibility of caverns within the con¬ 
fusion of stone. 

Finally, the girl halted, and looked about her 
dubiously. 

“Fm not quite sure,” she confessed. “There 
have been landmarks all the way, until just 
here. But I think this is the ravine—if not, 
it's close by.” 

She went on slowly, with roving eyes. Then, 
of a sudden, her expression lightened. 

“Ah, I know now,” she exclaimed joyously. 
“Yes, it’s here—see!” While speaking, she 
had hastened forward, and now, as she fin¬ 
ished, she pointed to where a clump of bushes 
grew against the north cliff of the ravine. 
Above the tops of the branches showed a rift 
in the stone. It was less than a foot in width, 
a splotch of blackness hardly more noticeable 
than a deeper shadow. Saxe, beholding, was 
filled with gratitude to his guide. 

“We’d never have found it in a thousand 
years,” he declared. “Besides, why should we 
ever hunt for the bed of a lake on the top of 
an island?” 

“Mr. Walker would have evolved a reason 
for it in the course of time,” Margaret said, 





DUX FACTI FEMINA 


255 


in a voice charged with profound respect for 
the sage. 

“Yes, I believe Billy would have worked it 
out—in time, ,, Saxe agreed. “But,” he added, 
with a smile, “perhaps not in time—according 
to the terms of the will.” 

“There’s another entrance, on one of the 
ridges near the shore,” Margaret explained. 
“Cousin Horace stumbled on that first. He 
showed it to me. But he found this way out, 
and it is better. He said the other was very 
hard climbing.” 

The two had gone forward, and now they 
were close to the cliff, beside the bushes. 
Here, Margaret thrust aside the branches, and, 
advancing a step behind them, showed the 
entrance to the cave, which was a slit less than 
a yard in width at the base, narrowing to the 
apex a rod above. It yawned blackly. Saxe 
was reminded that he had taken no thought as 
to the need of candles or lantern. He began 
the confession of his carelessness, but the girl 
stopped him. 

“I brought a pocket-torch,” she said. “See!” 
As she spoke, she drew the tube from a pocket 
of her sweater, pressed the spring, and lighted 





256 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


up the entrance to the cave. 

“What a girl you are!” Saxe cried. There 
was that in his voice which set Margaret 
a-tremble. 

“Come!” she commanded hastily. With the 
word, she walked forward into the cavern. 
Behind her in the narrow passage, Saxe fol¬ 
lowed obediently. 




CHAPTER XIX 

IN THE CAVERN 


T HE passage continued of limited width 
for a number of rods. The floor lay 
almost level, smooth enough to make going 
easy. The light from the torch showed only 
walls of bare rock on either side, and once, 
when Margaret turned the rays upward, the 
narrowing slant to an apex far above their 
heads. The two explorers went in silence. 
Saxe thought the footing safe enough so that 
he could content himself with watching the 
girl, whose every motion was a delight to him, 
seen dimly in the glow that penetrated from 
without. He was not minded to waste many 
glances on barren cliffs, while so much of living 
beauty went in buoyant grace there before him. 
Margaret, however, gave no apparent atten¬ 
tion to aught save the immediate business of 
the moment, which was holding her gaze to 
the path lighted by the torch. And so they 
came presently into a spacious chamber within 
the earth. 

As the two entered here, Margaret halted, 

257 


258 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


and Saxe eagerly stepped to her side. The girl 
flashed the torch here and there, to reveal the 
nature of the place. Saxe guessed that the 
room had a diameter of about fifty feet. The 
walls of ragged rock formed an uneven circle. 
They bent inward in the ascent, with a dome¬ 
like effect, to a height of hardly two score feet. 

Margaret wasted no time. After one exam¬ 
ination of the walls by the torch, she fixed the 
light on a portion of the side opposite them, a 
little to the left. Saxe, peering intently in 
this direction, thought that he detected two 
patches of shadow, a little denser than the sur¬ 
rounding dark, which might be the openings 
into other tunnels. The girl’s words proved 
his surmise right. 

“There are two passages over there, close 
together/’ she announced. “As I remember, 
the one we followed was that on the right. Of 
course, the money might be hidden anywhere. 
But we might go a little way in that passage 
first, so that you’ll understand how it runs 
downward.” 

“Yes,” Saxe agreed. “The place in which 
to search is narrowed by the statement in the 

cipher about the bottom of the lake. Does the 




IN THE CAVERN 


259 


other passage, too, run downward?” 

The girl shook her head instinctively, 
although the action was not visible, since the 
outdoor light did not penetrate thus far, and 
the beam cast by the torch was directed from 
her. 

“I know nothing of the second passage,” she 
explained. “We didn’t enter it. Come.” 

They set out across the chamber, walking 
side by side, and so came to the passage-way of 
which Margaret had had experience. This 
proved to be somewhat broader than that 
through which they had come. They had 
advanced but a very short way, when the floor 
began to slope sharply downward. Saxe real¬ 
ized that this rate of descent need not be con¬ 
tinued long to bring them to the level of the 
lake’s bottom. He knew that the highest point 
of the island could have hardly more than a 
hundred feet of elevation above the surface of 
the lake. Indeed, he was sure that the entrance 
to the cavern was only a little distance above 
the level of the water. They had climbed the 
bluff that lined the shore, and had afterward 
ascended a few slight rises, but the total ver¬ 
tical height could not have been more than fifty 




260 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


feet. The inclination of the passage down¬ 
ward was enough to overcome this speedily, if 
it should continue. And it did continue, for 
such a long way that at last Saxe was sure the 
waters of the lake lay above them. 

The two wayfarers within this secret place 
of the earth spoke little, and that for the most 
part of the things immediately about them. 
The floor of this passage-way here was not 
free from rubble, as the other had been. It 
was littered everywhere with fallen fragments, 
so that there was need to watch each step with 
care. Saxe experienced a new happiness when 
the difficulties of the path became so serious as 
to justify him in taking the hand of Margaret 
to help her in surmounting a fallen boulder. 
As the pulse of her blood touched his, it 
throbbed a rapture in his heart. In this dark 
vault of the earth, he forgot the first object of 
the subterranean wandering—forgot in wor¬ 
ship of the woman at his side; Margaret her¬ 
self sharply recalled him to the prosaic. 

“Do you notice the difference in the light ?” 
she asked. “I’m sure it’s dying out. It must 
need recharging. We must hurry back.” 

A note of apprehension in the speaker’s voice 




IN THE CAVERN 


261 


aroused Saxe to instant concern. He gave a 
quick glance toward the circle of light cast by 
the torch, and perceived that its radiance had 
in fact grown less. 

“Yes,” he answered, “it’s failing. We must 
turn. Anyhow, I’ve seen enough to under¬ 
stand that this is the likeliest place in which 
to hunt for the gold.” 

As he spoke, they turned about together, and 
began the ascent with hastening steps, for the 
thought that the torch might die out while 
they were still within the cavern was far from 
pleasant to either of them. The girl’s anxiety 
was revealed in the next question: 

“Have you matches ?” 

With a start of dismay, Saxe recalled that 
he had left his match-safe in the pocket of his 
coat, which remained in the canoe. Neverthe¬ 
less, he made a perfunctory search. 

“No,” he admitted reluctantly; “I left them 
in the canoe.” He heard the girl sigh; but she 
said nothing more, only hastened her steps. 
The dimming of the torch was very apparent 
now. 

The two scrambled over the unevennesses of 
the passage with what haste they might. Saxe 





262 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


congratulated himself on the fact that there 
had been no other passages branching from 
that in which they had made the descent, for 
the turns, while never sharp, had been fre¬ 
quent enough to breed perilous confusion were 
there need of choice. In the next instant, how¬ 
ever, he remembered the abstraction of his 
thoughts during the traversing of the route, 
and he was filled with self-reproach at the 
realization that, after all, there might have 
been such branches. And, just then, the two 
halted abruptly, arrested by a sudden con¬ 
sciousness of the truth. They were descend¬ 
ing! 

For a moment, neither spoke. In that little 
interval, the feeble glow of the torch died out 
altogether. 

There came a gasp of dismay from Mar¬ 
garet. Saxe’s clasp on her hand tightened in 
the instinct of protection. Then he essayed a 
cheerful laugh, albeit there was small merri¬ 
ment in it. 

“Now,” he declared briskly, “we must stop 
right where we are until we’ve planned a cam¬ 
paign. This is a real adventure.” Even as he 
spoke, miserably aware of the serious predica- 




IN THE CAVERN 


263 


ment into which the going out of the torch had 
plunged them, he was conscious of the delicate 
fragrance of her hair, so near his lips, and the 
vague, yet penetrant, perfume that exhaled 
from her to the ravishing of his senses. He 
fought manfully against the temptation to 
draw her to his breast, as every fibre of him 
besought. Under the stress of desire denied, 
his voice came with a ring of imperiousness. 
“I had a lot of experiences in caves, when I 
was a boy. This thing will be easy.” 

“But we’re going downward,” Margaret 
faltered. The mystery of the event had sapped 
courage. 

“Exactly!” Saxe conceded. “Somewhere, 
we turned off into a branch passage. Did you 
know of any branch ?” 

“No,” came the answer. The inflection of 
distress gave new strength to the temptation 
that beset him. 

“I should have noticed it on the way down,” 
Saxe confessed, in great bitterness of spirit; 
“but my mind was wool-gathering.” 

The girl ventured no question. Perhaps she 
guessed the nature of that distraction. 

“Anyhow, we’ve managed to leave the pass- 




264 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


age in which we came down. We couldn’t 
have turned around in it, without knowing the 
fact. It seems to me that we’ve only to face 
about, and make our way upward again— 
merely watching out that we don’t get switched 
off another time. The ascent will surely take 
us back by one or the other of the two corridors 
into the big room above.” 

“But—if it should not!” Margaret stam¬ 
mered. The woe in her voice was pitiful. 
“Why, we might—here in the dark—no light 
—no food—oh!” 

Saxe spoke with a manner of authority: 

“Stop! Don’t imagine things. Worry 
wastes strength. Save yours for this excit¬ 
ing climb through the dark. There’s no danger 
—that I know.” The calm confidence with 
which he contrived to charge his voice soothed 
the girl, and restored to her some measure 
of courage. From his position on the left side 
of her, he put out his free hand, and touched 
the wall. “Put out your right hand,” he bade 
her, “until it reaches the wall. Now, we’ll turn 
round, and begin the journey in the right direc¬ 
tion. Keep in touch with the wall, please. 
Move slowly, using your feet in place of eyes, 





IN THE CAVERN 


265 


to avoid stumbling.” 

In this fashion, they set forth through the 
blackness of the cavern. It was slow and tedi¬ 
ous going. It had been tiresome enough when 
the torch made plain the obstacles strewn over 
the floor. Now, the difficulties were multiplied 
an hundredfold by the absence of light. They 
could only shuffle a foot about cautiously until 
it secured a firm place, then by like clumsy 
feeling choose the next step. Often, one or 
the other stumbled, was near to falling, but, 
since these mishaps occurred rarely at the same 
instant, the one still in balance gave sufficient 
support. Yet, slow as was their progress, Saxe 
found heart to be content with it. Always it 
was upward, until he dared believe that they 
were actually in either the passage by which 
they had descended, or in that which opened 
near it in the big room. He told his faith to 
Margaret, and she strove her best to throw off 
the gloom bred of this hateful environment, but 
could not; nevertheless, despite her fears, they 
won through at last to the great chamber. 

“Hurrah!” cried Saxe. His guiding left 
hand swept suddenly into emptiness— 
another step, and still there had been no con- 




266 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


tact to his roving fingers. It was then that 
he halted, and gave a shout of triumph. 
“There's no wall on your side?" he 
demanded. 

The girl put out her hand, but there was 
nothing within reach. With a pang of com¬ 
punction, she realized that she had been 
remiss in the duty appointed her, for she had 
not felt the wall even once in a long while. 
She made admission of her guilt, with charm¬ 
ing contrition. 

“It's no matter," Saxe declared. Profound 
relief sounded in his words. “We've come 
safe to the big room, and nothing else 
counts." In sheer exuberance over their 
escape, he pressed the fingers that lay so 
lightly within his. 

The girl thrilled in answer to the clasp. 
The announcement of their return to the 
chamber came to her overwrought mind as 
a reprieve from fearful doom. With the joy 
now possessing her, there came relaxation 
of the tension that had sustained her. In 
the warm pressure of his hand over hers was 
a comfort that loosed the self-control in 
which she had held herself hitherto. With- 




IN THE CAVERN 


267 


out any warning, sKe drooped as she stood; 
her form grew limp. She would have fallen, 
had not Saxe, in terror for her as he felt the 
yielding of her muscles, drawn her to his 
breast. He held her close there. It seemed 
strange to him, as she lay motionless within 
his embrace, the while his lips touched softly 
a strand of the wonderful hair, that the glory 
of those tresses should not make all things 
visibly radiant in the blackness of the cavern, 
even as the nearness of her made a golden 
sunlight in his heart. He did not utter a 
word or venture aught beyond the kiss on 
that lock which kindliest fate had laid across 
his lips—only rested motionless, holding her 
firmly, reverently, what time she wept softly 
on his bosom. Surely, there needed no 
clumsy vehicle of words between those two 
embraced in the solitary dark. Twain pulses 
throbbed as one. In their rhythm ran a song 
of heavenly things. 




CHAPTER XX 

THE EVENTS OF A NIGHT 


S INCE the large chamber was in utter 
darkness, Saxe decided on recourse to 
a device which had served him well in simi¬ 
lar situations of his boyhood among the 
mountains. As soon as Margaret moved 
and drew a little away from him, he spoke. 

“We must step back to the passage-way/' 
he said. “From it, I can take our bearings, 
so that we can cross the place without 
floundering about haphazard in the dark." 

“Yes," the girl answered. Her voice came 
very low, quavering a little. 

Two paces brought them again to the 
entrance of the corridor. There, with a hand 
touching either side, Saxe made sure of the 
exact direction in which he faced, and from 
this he judged his course, for he remembered 
the relative positions of the passage by 
which they had come into the big room and 
of the shadows he had seen on the opposite 
wall. He had in mind as well his estimate of 
the diameter of the chamber, and so, when he 

268 


269 


THE EVENTS OF A NIGHT 

had made sure of his direction he set off boldly, 
after again taking Margaret by the hand. He 
lengthened his stride a trifle, to make it the 
measure of a pace. When he had counted fif¬ 
teen steps, he reduced his speed, and moved 
with caution, groping before him. A moment 
later, his hands encountered the wall. He 
was confident that he had held his course 
fairly straight in crossing the chamber, and 
was certain, in consequence, that the open¬ 
ing into the passage must lie a little to his 
left. He therefore drew Margaret in this 
direction. An instant later, to his joy, his 
left hand found emptiness. Without a word, 
the two hurried forward, and presently they 
saw before them a dim glow that was the 
first hint of outer light. Saxe fell behind 
the girl as the passage narrowed. Margaret 
quickened her steps to a run, and he held fast 
at her heels. In the same second with her, 
he issued from the cavern, and sent forth a 
huge shout, which was a little for escape 
from the cave, but chiefly for a primitive, 
masterful delight in the woman beside him. 
Margaret smiled sympathy with his mood— 
and her smile, it may be, was divided in its 






270 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


sources, even as was the lover’s cry of 
triumph. 

The girl’s face was mantled with blushes. 
But she spoke bravely, with a dainty air of 
inconsequence. 

“Why, how late it is!” She pointed 
toward the west. “See, the sun has set 
already, we were in there for ages.” 

“Yes,” Saxe agreed. “And it’s like rebirth 
to come back—rebirth into a new, glorious 
life.” With an effort, he checked himself, 
for he would not embarrass her now, though 
passion bubbled to his lips. “We must pad¬ 
dle over to where the rest are, and let them 
know about the cave at once.” 

The news brought by the two created a 
lively excitement among the others, along 
with a considerable feeling of relief, for the 
continued absence of Margaret and Saxe had 
been inexplicable, until Billy Walker quoted, 
with ostentatious carelessness: 

Love's a virtue for heroes—as white as the 
snow on high hills, 

And immortal as every great soul is that 
struggles, endures and fulfills. 




THE EVENTS OF A NIGHT 


271 


At this utterance from the seer, who was 
by no means prone to sentimental rhapso¬ 
dizing, Roy appeared at first puzzled, then 
enlightened, and he smiled—nor speculated 
more as to the whereabouts of his missing 
friend, while David grinned appreciatively, 
and accepted the innuendo as a sufficient 
explanation of Saxe's absence even in this 
crisis of affairs. 

For the rest, the three, with some assist¬ 
ance from Jake, had passed a busy afternoon, 
without accomplishing anything beyond a 
disheartening certainty that the gold had 
been very effectually concealed. Much of 
the cove was shallow, and Billy Walker had 
suited his convenience by pursuing his inves¬ 
tigations of these portions from the launch 
which Jake guided to and fro as required. 
The clearness of the water made it possible 
to see the bottom distinctly except at the 
greatest depths, and in this comfortable 
fashion Billy conducted his search, smoking 
the inevitable black cigar. In the deeper 
parts, Roy, clad in a bathing-suit, made such 
examination of the bottom as he might by 
diving. David either assisted Billy in the 




272 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


scrutiny from the launch, or hunted over the 
islands near the shore. At no time did it 
occur to them to extend their researches so 
far as the island on which Saxe and Mar¬ 
garet had landed. They had just come to 
the conclusion that they must give over 
work for the day, and were again beginning 
to feel concern in regard to the continued 
absence of the heir himself, when they were 
startled by a hail in the voice of the missing 
man. They stared out over the lake, and 
perceived the canoe darting toward them, 
with Margaret plying a skilled paddle from the 
bow. Jake, who had just bent to the fly¬ 
wheel of the engine to crank up, dropped 
again to the bench; the others stood up and 
shouted. They had no least suspicion that 
the truants could be bringing news of the 
treasure. When finally the light craft ranged 
alongside the launch, and the story of the 
cavern was told, there were wonder and sat¬ 
isfaction. Roy was the first to make a sug¬ 
gestion as to the course to be pursued. 

“The rest of you go on to the cottage,” he 
directed. ‘Til stay here on guard, in case our 
friend, the engineer, should have a mind to 




THE EVENTS OF A NIGHT 


273 


drop in on a visit. After dinner, let Jake 
bring me a snack to eat, and Fll keep watch 
through the night. You —” he turned 
toward Margaret and Saxe — “can take me 
to the island, and show me the entrance to 
the cave, and then leave me.” 

There were protestations from the others, 
offers to share the watch with him; but Roy 
resisted all importunities. 

“Fd like to meet Masters again,” he 
declared, in his gentlest voice. “I don’t want 
any help.” They recognized the emphasis 
of finality, and forebore further argument. 

But, when after dinner at the cottage Jake 
was about setting forth in the launch with 
supplies for Roy, which in addition to food 
included a pair of blankets and a lantern, 
David appeared at the boat-house, and 
accosted the old man just as the propeller 
began to revolve: 

“Hold your hosses, Jake!” he called; and 
the boatman obediently threw out the clutch, 
and steered in a slowing circle to the dock. 
As he came alongside, David produced— 
with a deftness of movement that showed 
some degree of familiarity with gun-play— 




274 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


a very businesslike appearing automatic, 
which lay snugly in his palm. With his 
other hand, he brought forth a box of car¬ 
tridges. These and the weapon, he extended 
toward Jake. 

“For Roy,” he explained. Jake nodded, and 
stowed the armament in a locker. 

The recipient of this equipment displayed 
small gratitude for his friend’s thoughtful¬ 
ness. On the contrary, he sniffed when 
Jake, after beaching the launch on the strip 
of sand where Roy awaited his coming, pre¬ 
sented the automatic and cartridges as first 
fruits. 

“I sha’n’t need a gun,” Roy declared super¬ 
ciliously; and his pugnacious jaw was thrust 
forward yet once again. And, afterward, 
when Jake had accompanied him to the 
cavern with the blankets and the lighted 
lantern, the boatman’s well-meant offer to 
remain for the night was rejected almost 
with indignation. “You don’t understand, 
Jake,” Roy said, venomously. “I personally 
have an account to settle with that infernal 
engineer.” 

The old man grinned a cheerful appreciation 




THE EVENTS OF A NIGHT 


275 


of the situation. 

“Of course,” he remarked, in a matter-of- 
fact tone, “you got quite some hefty grudge 
agin ’im for the way he ducked your sweet¬ 
heart.” 

At this candid statement, Roy gaped in 
amazement. 

“Why, how did you know she —” he 
began. Then, he halted in confusion. For 
the first time in many years, he felt himself 
incapable of speech. 

Jake chuckled in high good nature, and 
deemed that explanation enough. 

“Well, lick Tm good, if ye ketch ’im,” he 
exhorted; and straightway set out on his 
return to the cottage, where he and David 
were to serve as guards throughout the 
night. 

Thus left to his own devices, Roy pro¬ 
ceeded to make himself as comfortable as the 
circumstances of his situation would permit. 
He was sure that the enemy would not 
appear on the scene for some time yet, if at 
all, and in the interval before that possible 
coming he proposed to make himself at ease. 
To this end, he placed the lantern in the 




276 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


center of the chamber on the floor, and 
folded the blankets into a comfortable rug, 
on which he seated himself cross-legged, 
according to the fashion he had learned to 
like in the Far East. He was at pains to 
have the luncheon-basket conveniently 
placed before him, and now began an inves¬ 
tigation of its contents with a curiosity 
sharpened by keen appetite. He smiled con¬ 
tentedly as he brought out a cold sliced fowl, 
fresh salad, a vacuum-bottle of hot coffee— 
the dozen other things that would have made 
a formidable array, had it not been for the 
strength of hunger with which he happily 
confronted them. As he renewed energy 
with this repast, Roy smiled at the contrast 
of its luxuriousness, as compared with many 
another that had been his lot in the wild 
places. He was alone in the wilderness, as 
often of old, but there the similarity ceased, 
for in those other places, there had been no 
dainties, such as the ones before him, no 
napkins of damask, or utensils of silver. And 
yet- 

Roy broke off his musings, as he finished 
his third cigarette, and set himself to make 






THE EVENTS OF A NIGHT 


2 77 


arrangements for the night. He removed 
his blankets to a point against the wall of 
the cavern on the side opposite the entrance, 
where a tiny recess offered partial conceal¬ 
ment. In this nook, he spread out the 
blankets, extinguished the lantern, stretched 
himself in a comfortable posture, and thus 
entered on the long vigil. He did not hesi¬ 
tate to doze, as he was sure that he retained 
his old habit of becoming alert at the faintest 
sound. 

It was hours afterward when he became 
broad-awake in an instant. For a time, he 
lay motionless, all his senses quickened. The 
blackness of the chamber seemed impenetra¬ 
ble, yet his eyes stared steadfastly into the 
dark, expectant for aught that might befall. 
It was on hearing, however, that he 
depended chiefly to gather information, and 
his ears were set keenly. Yet, though he 
listened so intently, minute after minute 
passed, and there was no least interruption 
of the perfect silence. 

Roy found himself in a quandary. He 
gave Masters credit for a shrewdness equal 
to the known unscrupulousness of the fellow. 






278 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


Undoubtedly, the engineer had lurked on 
some vantage spot of the shore throughout 
the day, and by this espionage had made 
himself acquainted with the progress of 
events on the lake. If he had perceived the 
landing of Margaret and Saxe on the island, 
as probably, almost certainly, he had, he 
would have known also of their long tarry¬ 
ing there, and of Roy’s remaining on the 
island. Perhaps from some elevation 
Masters had followed all their activities 
through a glass, and had been able by this 
method to inform himself precisely concern¬ 
ing the location of the cavern in which Roy 
was lying. Or, even, he might have come 
to the island, venturing in by the north-east 
side, so that his approach would not have 
been observed by the others. He could very 
easily have kept himself hidden afterward, as 
the unevennesses of the island and the pro¬ 
fuse growth of trees and bushes offered 
ample concealment. But, whether the 
advent to the island had been earlier or later, 
Roy was sure that it was now accomplished, 
and that the engineer was there present in 
the chamber with him. His sixth sense 




THE EVENTS OF A NIGHT 


279 


spoke the assurance. 

After all, it was sight, and not hearing, 
that at last served to guide the warden of 
the cavern. His eyes, which had been rov¬ 
ing vainly in an effort to pierce the black 
space, suddenly caught a faintest glow. It 
was so indistinct, so subtly suggested rather 
than seen, that for a little Roy believed his 
vision deluded by some phosphorescence 
within his brain, which had set the nerves 
of sight to vibrating. He closed the eyelids 
for a moment, then looked again. The 
vague hint of radiance far remote still lin¬ 
gered. On the instant, doubt vanished; in 
its stead came certainty. 

There could be no question that the light 
shone from a distance. Even the faintest 
spark anywhere near would have presented 
an appearance radically different from this. 
The diffusion of it was proof that its origin 
was in a light set a long way off. Finally, 
Roy guessed that the source of it was shut 
out from his direct vision by some obstacle 
intervening between him and it, while the 
nimbus extended beyond the barrier, and 
thus became perceptible. If this were, 




280 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


indeed, the case, it would be reasonable to 
suppose that the person responsible for the 
light was equally far away. The conclusion 
was by no means inevitable, but it was a 
fair assumption. Roy deemed himself justi¬ 
fied in acting upon it. 

Forthwith, he got to his feet, using every 
caution to avoid the least noise. When erect, 
he stood for a time listening, but could detect 
no sound. He had removed his shoes before 
lying down, and now he went forward in 
stockinged feet, very slowly, taking the 
direction whence the light seemed to issue, 
although its feebleness made the location far 
from sure. He used all the skill of which 
he was capable in this advance, and did 
indeed contrive to avoid making any noise. 
When he had gone for two rods, or more, 
he halted, and again listened. Nothing, how¬ 
ever, rewarded his attention, and presently 
he renewed the tedious progress. Soon, it 
was borne in on him that the origin of the 
light was within one of the passages leading 
downward, of which Saxe had told him, and 
of which entrances had been observed by 
him while he was eating his meal, though 




THE EVENTS OF A NIGHT 


281 


he had not troubled to examine them. His 
sense of direction, strong naturally, had been 
developed by experience, and he was con¬ 
vinced that the radiance streamed from the 
passage that was on the left, as he faced 
the two. 

From Saxe's narrative, he knew that these 
tunnels were winding. The fact would 
readily explain the manner of the light, 
visible where he was in the big room like 
the afterglow from a sunset, with the cause 
of it hidden beyond the turnings of the corri¬ 
dor in which it burned, as the sun lies unseen 
below the horizon. With this understanding 
of the situation, Roy felt an accession of con¬ 
fidence, and at once moved forward more 
briskly in the direction from which the 
illumination shone. He held his hands out¬ 
stretched, for the light was still too feeble 
to show objects round about him, even 
vaguely. Presently, his right hand touched 
stone. After another step, his left hand also 
came in contact with the wall, and he knew 
that he was within the passage, though wheth¬ 
er that on the right or on the left he could only 
guess, nor did he regard the matter as of 




282 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


importance. 

From this point onward, Roy’s advance, 
while made with unfailing caution, was 
much more expeditious. His stockinged feet 
seemed to possess a consciousness of their 
own, by which they searched for, and found, 
the fragments of rubble that were smooth 
enough not to cut, while solid enough not 
to yield a sound under the pressure of his 
weight. And, as he went forward, the light 
increased, little by little, until at last he could 
distinguish the sides of the tunnel through 
which he was passing. Yet, even when the 
illumination became sufficient to show what 
sort the footing, Roy chose still to trust his 
sense of touch, and held his eyes alert for 
anything that might appear in the distance 
beyond. He was aware that the passage 
descended for a time, then mounted slowly, 
only to slope downward again, and to con¬ 
tinue thus. He noted, too, that sometimes 
it widened, until he could touch only one 
wall. He mistook the opening into the other 
passage for one of these broader places. 

Roy aroused to the fact that the source of 
the light he sought was itself advancing, 




THE EVENTS OF A NIGHT 


283 


even as he advanced. There was no other 
possible explanation of the way in which 
it remained at about the same brilliancy, 
though he went forward with good speed. 
By this time, too, Roy was certain that the 
distance between him and the light was such 
as to leave little danger in the slight noise 
of his progress. So, he mended his pace, and 
soon perceived, with satisfaction, that the 
radiance noticeably increased. He main¬ 
tained the quickened speed for a minute or 
two longer, then prudently moderated it 
again. Indeed, so bright was the light now 
that he made sure of being very close to the 
cause of it, and renewed the exercise of all 
his caution as he crept forward. That this 
was none too much—nor, indeed, enough— 
was shown by what presently followed. 

Roy paused again, to examine the situa¬ 
tion in detail. The brilliance of the light 
now assured him that its source was shut 
from him only by a single bend of the tunnel, 
which was hardly a rod in front. It was 
plain, then, that the time had come for 
determining the manner of his attack, since 
the moment could not be long delayed. He 




284 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


had no intention of resorting to the weapon 
with which David had equipped him. He 
planned that he would approach the turning of 
the passage noiselessly, and seek to recon¬ 
noitre from that point without being 
observed. Thereafter, as opportunity should 
serve, he would steal upon his enemy una¬ 
ware, overpower the fellow, handling him 
with roughness enough to afford some ade¬ 
quate satisfaction for the outrage against 
May Thurston, and finally, when the villain 
had been reduced to passivity, hold him 
prisoner—to which purpose, at last, the auto¬ 
matic might prove convenient. The arrange¬ 
ment was admirably simple; there remained 
but to test its efficacy. 

The length of tunnel thus traversed by 
Roy in his pursuit had been considerable. 
Throughout the latter portion, the slope had 
been downward, with frequent variations 
from a sharp incline to stretches almost level. 
In the place to which he had now attained, 
the slant was scarcely perceptible. At this 
distance from the big chamber, he had long 
passed beneath the waters of the lake. The 
location of the treasure might well be any- 




THE EVENTS OF A NIGHT 


285 


where hereabouts, according to the saying 
of the miser’s cipher. Roy was moved to 
devouring curiosity to learn whether or no 
the man ahead of him had in truth come 
upon the gold. If so, the accomplishment 
should avail the scoundrel little, he vowed, 
and his jaw was thrust forward, as once again 
he advanced. 

Roy looked to the placing of his feet for 
every step, neglecting no precaution to avoid 
aught that might give warning of his 
approach. In this stealthy fashion, he came 
to the turning of the tunnel, and then, after 
another delay to make sure that his presence 
remained unsuspected, he ventured to peer 
into the passage beyond the bend. His heart 
exulted! Surely, fate had delivered his 
enemy into his hand. 

A hundred feet beyond the corner from 
which Roy looked, a lantern was set on the 
floor of the passage. This was the source 
of the light that he had trailed so painstak¬ 
ingly. It burned clearly; the radiance from 
it showed all about with distinctness. The 
conspicuous thing on which the beams shone 
was the form of Masters, who was kneeling 




286 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


and gazing fixedly down into an opening in 
the floor of the cavern. The man was on 
the farther side of this, and so had his face 
toward the watcher, but absorption in what¬ 
ever was displayed beneath him prevented 
his noticing the presence of the newcomer. 
Roy was, therefore, able to continue his spy¬ 
ing at ease. Curiosity, as well as discretion, 
bade him delay attack. He was eager to 
learn the nature of the engineer's interest in 
the opening, and, too, the fellow's position, 
facing up the tunnel, rendered impossible at 
the moment a rush that should take him by 
surprise. Undoubtedly, the engineer would 
make some movement presently, which 
would place him more conveniently for Roy's 
purpose. In the meantime, it would be 
enough to observe, and to await the right 
instant for assault. 

It may be that Masters, too, possessed a 
sixth sense. Roy could never be convinced 
that there was not something uncanny in 
the events that now immediately followed. 
Masters jumped down into the opening, 
where he stood with only head and shoulders 





THE EVENTS OF A NIGHT 


287 


exposed. Then, in an instant, the light of 
the lantern vanished—with that, the crash 
of a forty-five, thunderous there within the 
cavern. A second report came in the same 
instant. A searing pain touched Roy’s brow, 
and he lay unconscious. 




CHAPTER XXI 

THE FIRST PIT 

A T THE cottage that same night, Mar- 
. garet made an excuse of fatigue, and 
withdrew to her chamber immediately when 
dinner was done, to the discomfiture of Saxe. 
May Thurston, too, vanished—perhaps be¬ 
cause Roy was absent, and she preferred 
solitude in order that she might think of him 
without interruption. Presently Mrs. West 
said good night, and the three friends were 
left alone in the music-room. It was then 
that Saxe proposed to give to Billy Walker 
some information he had received from Mar¬ 
garet during their return trip in the canoe. 

“I’ve found out who was in this room 
when you fell through the ceiling/’ Saxe said 
to the sage. 

“Oh, that!” Billy retorted contemptu¬ 
ously. “It was of no importance. I didn’t 
bother to tell you.” 

“Do you mean,” Saxe demanded, in aston¬ 
ishment, “that you know already?” 

“Certainly,” was the crisp answer. “It 

288 


THE FIRST PIT 


289 


was Chris/’ 

“But how-” 

“Elimination. There was no problem of 
interest.” 

“But-” 

“Only a kindergarten form of ratiocina¬ 
tion required,” the sage went on, with an 
air of extreme boredom. “Cause—family 
devotion. Aged and faithful servitor didn’t 
mean to let you deprive daughter of his mis¬ 
tress of her share of the money—meant to 
beat you to it, like Masters, but from a 
different motive, merely to keep it away from 
you until the time limit should expire. Then, 
he observed symptoms between you and the 
said daughter that convinced him of error in 
his plans—made him realize that keeping 
the money away from you would end in 
depriving her of half the gold while giving 
her a half. Being emotional and devoted, he 
confessed to the girl. The girl felt it her 
duty to confess to you. It is probable that 
Chris was the one to discover the secret 
vault in the wall there, whom Roy, without 
due reasoning, took to be Masters. Was it 
Chris?” 







290 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


“Yes,” Saxe admitted. He was greatly dis¬ 
concerted by his failure to add anything to 
the seer’s knowledge. 

“Bully for Chris!” David exclaimed. 
“Crafty old critter, too, to dig into that safe. 
Huh! I’ve heard about that sort of devotion 
on the part of old family servants, but it’s 
the first instance I’ve struck in my own 
experience. Don’t have ’em in Wyoming.” 

“Awful nuisance,” Billy Walker grumbled, 
“aged family retainers—doddering remnants, 
always butting in!” He gaped shamelessly, 
with a great noise. 

Saxe, outraged by the sage’s flippant refer¬ 
ence to sacred things of his heart, felt him¬ 
self indisposed for the further companionship 
of his friends just then. It was this mood, 
rather than any anxiety concerning the 
treasure, that led him tc devise an excuse 
for separation. 

“Let’s get to bed,” he said, “and then make 
an early start for the island in the morning.” 

Billy Walker, whose lids were weighted 
by the day’s activities, grinned contentedly 
at the first phrase, and scowled portentously 
at the second. 




291 


THE FIRST PIT 

“That’s the idea,” David agreed. “We’ll 
be off as soon as it gets to be light. I’ll 
tell Jake to call us, and Mrs. Dustin to have 
our breakfast ready.” He bustled out of the 
room, eager for the mission. 

Billy Walker groaned. 

“Dave is too precipitate,” he growled; “too 
precipitate by far.” He rose and started for 
his room. “If we’re to arise at some ghastly 
hour,” he explained to Saxe, “I musn’t lose 
an instant in getting to bed. Brain-workers 
require ten hours of sleep. It’s different with 
you others.” His feelings somewhat soothed 
by this gibe, he departed. 

In consequence of David’s alertness, they 
were routed out of bed the following morn¬ 
ing while yet there was only the most pallid 
hint of gray in the east to foretell the dawn. 
When Billy Walker found that he required 
a lamp to direct the process of his toilet, he 
was in a state of revolt. He was thoroughly 
disgusted when he discovered artificial light 
a necessity at the breakfast-table. He made 
it plain to all and sundry that nocturnal 
ramblings were not to his mind. But he 
sank into wordless grief when the party set 





292 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


forth in the launch, for darkness still pre¬ 
vailed, and he heard Jake announce that 
there would be a full hour before the rising 
of the sun. 

David, for his part, was all eagerness to 
be at work. Saxe, too, now that he was in 
the open, gave over for a time his dreams of 
the one woman, and was filled with zeal 
toward this final struggle for the attainment 
of fortune. He believed that the day would 
determine success or failure in the quest for 
Abernethey’s gold. He had seen to it that 
the equipment contained whatever might be 
necessary for thorough exploration of the 
cavern. In the launch were lanterns, ropes, 
pickaxes, shovels, and a miscellany of things, 
selected by himself, David and Jake in coun¬ 
cil. There was, too, a big hamper of food, 
so that they would not need to return to 
the cottage for luncheon. 

On the arrival of the party at the island, 
they made their way at once to the cavern, 
carrying only the lanterns. The other things 
were left in the launch, to be got as occasion 
should require after the preliminary search. 
None of them suspected that aught might 




THE FIRST PIT 


293 


have befallen Roy in the cave. Although 
they had come to know something of the 
desperate nature of Masters, they were con¬ 
fident that Roy's presence on watch would 
have sufficed to keep the engineer at a dis¬ 
tance. So they were all in the best of spirits, 
even to Billy Walker who was at last fully 
awake, when, after lighting each a lantern, 
they pushed aside the bushes that hid the 
break in the cliff, and made their way 
through the rift into the great chamber. As 
they stepped within it, they lifted their 
voices in joyous greeting to their comrade. 
To their surprise, no answer came to the 
hail—only innumerable echoes flung back 
from the recesses. 

“He’s off, exploring on his own,” David 
remarked. 

Billy Walker, who had been lurching 
clumsily here and there with inquisitive eyes, 
examining the unfamiliar surroundings by 
the light of his lantern, after the fashion of 
a modern Diogenes, now turned to Jake with 
a question. 

“How many lanterns did Mr. Morton 
have?” he demanded. 




294 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


“Why,” drawled Jake, astonished at the 
interrogation, “he had jest one, o’ course. 
What about it, Mr. Walker?” 

“Simply, the fact is sufficient evidence to 
the effect that Roy is not absent on an explor¬ 
ing expedition by himself, which was David’s 
suggestion. Here is his lantern.” He 
stooped, with a groan in response to the 
physical strain involved, picked up the lan¬ 
tern, which he had observed at his feet where 
it stood beside the blankets, and held it out 
for the others to see. “It’s quite cold,” he 
added. “It hasn’t been lighted for some time.” 

The others stared in silence for a little.- 
Even yet, they were far from suspecting any 
evil. It was Jake who spoke at last: 

“I opine, he must have gone outside 
some’rs, to kind o’ stretch ’imself-like. Got 
too sleepy, maybe.” 

But now, David shook his head decisively. 

“No,” he declared. “Roy’s ears are mighty 
sharp, and we talked loudly enough in the 
launch to be heard a mile—specially Billy. If 
Roy had been anywhere on the island, top of 
the ground, he’d have heard us then, and have 
come a-running.” David’s expression 




THE FIRST PIT 


295 


changed to one of perplexity, in which alarm 
mingled. There was a new note of anxiety 
in his voice as he concluded: “And, if he 
was anywhere about this place, he’d have 
heard us, too, and have come a-running. 
And the lantern here—” David’s big eyes, 
shining weirdly through the lenses, went 
from one to another of the three men before 
him, as if seeking help against the trouble 
growing within him. 

“There’s some mystery here,” Saxe 
exclaimed. Anxiety sounded in his voice. 
“We must search the cavern at once—for 
him. We already know he’s not in this 
room. We’ll look through the two passages 
that run down under the lake. Come on, 
Jake. You and I’ll take the one on the 
right.” He called over his shoulder to his 
friends, as he hurried forward: “You two 
take the passage on the left. If you find him, 
try to make us hear.” 

It was David who found Roy, for impa¬ 
tience sent him far in advance of plodding 
Billy Walker. By the light of the lantern, 
David made out the huddled form lying on 
the floor of the passage, just at the turning. 





296 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


He ran forward with a cry of grief, and knelt 
beside the body. It had come to him in a 
flash that the event was more serious than 
anything he had apprehended. Masters had 
at last gained a victim. With the lantern set 
on the floor close at hand, David raised the 
body, which had been lying face downward. 
As he did so, he perceived the creased brow, 
with its matting of blood, now dried to a 
ruddy black. For an instant, David was 
stricken with a great fear lest his friend be 
dead. But, as he rested the head against 
him, a soft moan breathed from the lips, and 
at the .sound hope sprang alive. He sent 
forth a shout, and Billy Walker, who was 
near, came running—for the first time in 
many years. No sooner had he learned of 
the injury to Roy than he set himself to 
summoning the others, and the vast voice 
rang thunderous through the subterranean 
ways. The mighty volume went rolling in 
sonorous waves throughout this secret place 
of the earth, penetrating every cranny and 
devious winding nook. Saxe and Jake felt 
the smiting of it on their ear-drums, and 
came racing through the break and into the 




THE FIRST PIT 


297 


passage whence the roaring issued. Even 
the unconscious man was not impervious to 
the gigantic din, he groaned, and his eyelids 
unclosed. David raised a hand for silence, 
and Billy Walker halted abruptly in his 
vociferation, his mouth wide. But, for a 
long time, the echoes clanged helter-skelter. 

When Saxe and Jake came, they with 
David lifted the sufferer, and bore him along 
the passage, while Billy went before, bearing 
the four lanterns. In this manner, they were 
able to make rapid progress, and soon Roy 
was placed comfortably on the turf of the 
ravine, just outside the cavern entrance, with 
a coat to pillow his head. David brought 
water in one of the vessels from the hamper 
in the launch. Billy Walker, however, 
bethought himself of a flask which he had, 
and a little sup of the spirits was got into 
the wounded man’s mouth. The effect of 
the stimulant was apparent almost at once. 
More was administered, with such excellent 
results that soon Roy’s eyes opened, and his 
lips moved in a vain attempt to speak. A 
moment later, he made a feeble movement, 
as if to sit up. Saxe assisted him to a reclin- 





298 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


ing posture. WKen the flask was proffered 
a third time, the sufferer was able to swallow 
a considerable portion of the liquor. David 
now appeared with the water, of which Roy 
drank thirstily. He remained quiet while 
David bathed his forehead, and, after it had 
been thoroughly cleansed, soaked a handker¬ 
chief in the whiskey, and bound it over the 
wound. Then finally, Roy spoke intelligibly. 

“The damned skunk got me!” 

“Masters!” Saxe repeated the name 
mechanically. There was no need to ques¬ 
tion—all knew. 

Roy nodded assent; and his jaw moved 
forward, a bit tremulously, but none the less 
a proclamation of his mood. 

David shook his head, in frank astonish¬ 
ment over the outcome of the encounter 
between the two men. 

“Didn't suppose he was quick enough on 
the draw to get you,” he said, dispiritedly. 
“Huh!” 

Roy resented the implication. His voice 
came with new strength, almost snarling. 

“Give the devil his due! He’s quick, all 
right. I didn’t mean to use a gun. I chased 




THE FIRST PIT 


299 


him in the dark down there, and came up to 
him. I was watching for a chance to jump 
him, when, somehow, he knew that I was 
there. I don’t know what could have given 
him a hint. I didn’t even guess that he had 
any suspicion. He fired two shots in a flash. 
I didn’t see him so much as pull the gun. 
With the first shot, he put out the lantern, 
which was a little way off from him. The 
second got me.” 

“But—in the dark!” David’s exclamation 
was incredulous. 

“In the dark!” Roy repeated, weakly. 

“Some class to that shooting,” David 
admitted, with manifest reluctance. 

Billy Walker sniffed loudly. 

“Nonsense!” he exclaimed; and the bour¬ 
don tone went reverberating afar. “You 
should exercise your reasoning powers, my 
dear David—if you have them—the enemy 
had the devil’s own luck, that’s all.” 

“In the dark!” David repeated, disputa- 
tiously. 

“Exactly—in the dark,” Billy conceded. 
“Why was the place in darkness? Because 
Masters shot out the light. Why did he 





300 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


shoot out the light? In order to be invisible 
to Roy, and so to avoid being killed himself. 
He didn’t wish to serve as a mark to the 
other man. That means, he wasn’t at all 
sure of hitting the other man. He chanced 
it, and he had the luck—better luck than he 
expected.” 

Roy’s expression lightened greatly, as 
Billy presented this view of the matter. It 
took something from the hurt to his pride 
sustained in the encounter. 

“I’d like to stand up to him,” he said, 
savagely; “luck, or no luck.” 

Roy’s injury was no worse than a scalp- 
wound, and he was soon sufficiently 
recovered to be hungry. Afterward, he 
solaced himself with a cigarette, and declared 
that he would speedily be himself again. He 
insisted that, in the meantime, the others 
should busy themselves with the work in 
hand. He would remain where he was in 
the pleasant sunshine, and the luxurious idle¬ 
ness of it would hasten the restoration of his 
strength. Since there was no valid objection 
that could be urged to this plan, it was 
followed. Pickaxes were secured from the 




THE FIRST PIT 


301 


launch, and then Saxe led the way into the 
cavern. It was the common mind that they 
should first investigate the passage in which 
Roy had suffered defeat at the hands of the 
engineer. 

The four hurried into the tunnel, and by 
the light of their lanterns made good prog¬ 
ress along the rough and winding way. In 
about ten minutes, they reached the corner 
where Roy had stationed himself in his pur¬ 
suit of Masters. They knew that the enemy 
had been engaged over something only a 
little distance beyond this point, and, as they 
advanced, they kept careful watch for the 
opening in the floor of the cavern. Presently, 
Saxe, who was still in the lead, uttered a 
shout. 

“Here it is!” 

As the others came up to him, he pointed 
to where, a few feet in front, a break yawned 
in the flooring of the tunnel. Immediately, 
all were grouped about the edge of the open¬ 
ing, staring down into it with intense excite¬ 
ment. By this time, they had come to 
respect the resourcefulness of the engineer 
and his ability. The fact that the spot had 




302 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


held him absorbed appeared to them of high 
significance. Since the man had searched 
here before their coming, was it not probable 
that he had found the gold in this very place? 

The opening was perhaps eight feet in 
length, by half as many in width. The depth 
was irregular. On the south end, it was 
hardly more than a foot below the level of 
the floor, running thus for a yard; then, it 
sloped sharply and unevenly until it was a 
full two yards in depth at the wall of the 
tunnel, on the side nearer the other passage. 
The light of the lanterns shone on a litter of 
earth and fragments of stone. There was 
no sign of either chest or bags that might 
contain treasure. The four stared down in 
silence for a long minute. 

“We must dig here,” David said, eagerly. 
“The money must be buried here.” 

Jake leaped down into the pit, and 
inspected the confused mass of fragments, 
while the others looked on curiously. Pres¬ 
ently, he raised his head, and spoke: 

“I calc'late we're a mite behindhand, as it 
were. This hole's been dug all over mighty 
careful—and mighty lately, too!” 




CHAPTER XXII 

THE OTHER PASSAGE 

D AVID voiced the general consternation: 

“By the Lord, Masters has got the 
gold, after all 

The following silence admitted the truth 
of his lament. Saxe’s face set grimly. His 
tones came harsh, when at last he spoke: 

“We’ll keep on hunting,” he said; “only, 
now we’ll hunt Masters.” 

Jake stood disconsolate, scratching his 
head, and staring wistfully from one to 
another. It was evident that he accepted 
the catastrophe as irremediable. Not so 
Billy Walker! On the contrary, Saxe had 
hardly done speaking when the voice of the 
wise man came booming the decrees of rati¬ 
ocination, with the usual pedantic note of 
authority: 

“The trouble with the disorderly mind is,” 
he began, with didacticism almost insulting, 
“that it jumps to a conclusion without due 
consideration of all the facts. Suddenly con¬ 
fronted with one fact, which is admitted, the 

303 


304 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


illogical person reaches a judgment without 
any scrutiny whatsoever of other vital facts 
concerned. Thus, in the instance before us!” 
He paused, and his little dull eyes, twinkling 
now from excitement, went from one to an¬ 
other of the three men before him, who listened 
too anxiously to be in the least offended, for 
his opening gave them hope. They knew by 
experience that Billy’s reasoning, notwith¬ 
standing all his boasts, was, indeed, usually 
exact, proven just by circumstance. The 
respectful attention on their faces was grate¬ 
ful to the seer. As he continued, his manner 
was more genial, though no less breathing 
the ipse dixit. 

“Jake has discovered that someone has 
been before us here, digging in this hole. 
That is one single, solitary fact. Instantly, 
all of you impulsively take it for granted that 
Masters has found the gold here, and has 
already removed it. As a matter of reason, 
the chances are greatly against this unwar¬ 
rantable assumption. It is only necessary 
to consider all the facts in our possession to 
understand this. 

“In the first place, the fact that this hole 




THE OTHER PASSAGE 


305 


has been dug up recently does not prove that 
there was gold hidden in it. As far as our 
knowledge goes, the treasure may have been 
there, or it may not. There is not a particle 
of evidence one way or the other. Masters 
was after the gold. He hunted here. That’s 
all we know. We do not know whether or not 
he found the money here. Even you chaps 
must admit that much.” He regarded the trio 
with accusing glances, before which they 
nodded a meek assent. 

“Go on, Billy,” Saxe urged. 

The undisguised interest of his audience 
served to set the orator in the best of humors, 
so that he grinned cheerfully on them as he 
resumed: 

“There are some facts that tend to show 
the impossibility of Masters having already 
removed the money from this place. It was 
late when Roy got his hurt from the hands 
of the engineer. It is reasonable to suppose 
that the fellow had had no chance to find, 
much less take away, the gold before the time 
when he encountered Roy. Now, the time 
that elapsed, after Roy received his wound 
until our coming to the cavern, was not very 




306 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


long. You doubtless remember that we 
were routed out at an unchristian hour, little 
better than the middle of the night. In fact, 
the dawn was still on the other side of the 
hills when we made the island. We were 
here not more than three hours after Roy 
got shot, and it is more likely that the inter¬ 
val was less. I am inclined to think it was 
perhaps not more than two hours. David, 
here, knows something about gold and its 
weight. I submit as reasonable the state¬ 
ment that, had Masters found the gold in 
this hole, he could not in the time at his dis¬ 
posal have removed that weight of metal to 
any distance without aid. 

“We are justified in believing that he works 
unaided, for the sake of greed and for the 
sake of prudence. If you bear in mind the 
length of this passage, and the impossibility 
of traversing it except slowly and cautiously, 
even unburdened, you will appreciate my 
reasons for suspecting that Masters has not 
carried off the gold.” Billy stared inquiringly 
at the listeners, and appeared elated as they 
severally nodded agreement. 

“No,” David declared, “I believe it would 




THE OTHER PASSAGE 


307 


have been next to impossible for him to have 
got away with it, even if he hid it close by 
on the island. From the way the blood on 
Roy’s face was caked, and the color of it, I 
don’t believe it had been an hour after the 

4 

shooting when we got here.” 

“If you’re right about that,” Billy averred, 
“it makes the probability of my reasoning 
a certainty.” 

“I’m pretty sure,” David answered. “I’ve 
seen bullet-holes enough to be pretty sure.” 

“Why, then,” Saxe exclaimed, briskly, and 
there was new confidence in his voice, “it seems 
to me that we’re just where we were—with the 
gold still to find. In the first place, we must 
make sure that it isn’t still here in this pit, and, 
if it isn’t, we must go ahead with the search of 
the cavern, until we find out where it is.” 

Billy emitted a rumbling chuckle, as Saxe 
leaped down into the pit, and raised a pickaxe. 

“My dear boy,” the sage cried, in bantering 
compliment, “for once you have reasoned 
simply and precisely. Bravo!” 

Not much time was required to make evident 
the fact that there could be nothing of value 
concealed in the pit. The litter was readily 





308 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


penetrated, and revealed beneath it solid rock, 
undisturbed since first set there by the proc¬ 
esses of primeval ages. The discovery was 
a source of relief, rather than of disappoint¬ 
ment, and Saxe, doubtless encouraged by the 
tribute accorded to his reasoning powers by 
Billy Walker, called attention to the fact that 
the amount of loose matter in the pit was far 
from being sufficient to have concealed any 
great bulk of gold. It was, therefore, reason¬ 
able to suppose that the treasure had never 
been buried in this place. 

The seer gave a grunt of approbation. 

“You advance by leaps and bounds,” he 
declared. 

Exploration of the continuance of the pas¬ 
sage was speedily effected, as it narrowed 
immediately beyond the pit, and came to a 
definite end within ten yards. Thereupon, the 
four retraced their steps, inspecting with care 
every inch of the way, until they reached the 
break that formed a communication between 
the two tunnels. It was decided now that the 
party should divide, Billy and David keeping 
on in this passage, while Saxe and the boatman 
crossed into the other, there to follow its leno-th 




THE OTHER PASSAGE 


309 


under the lake. 

Saxe knew that he and the girl had gone a 
little way beyond the junction of the passages, 
and he was intensely eager to learn what might 
lie farther on. Hope mounted high as he set 
forth down the slope, with Jake hard at his 
heels. He realized that, for ill or weal, he was 
close to the issue of his adventure, and he 
dared expect success. 

The way at first led downward steeply, but 
afterward, at a point which, as Saxe judged, 
was still well within the island, the tunnel 
ascended for a time, then ran level. This level 
broadened presently into a chamber, larger 
even than that back at the entrance to the 
cavern. Their lanterns showed a room fully a 
hundred feet in diameter, irregular, its walls 
broken by many ledges, with here and there 
deep shadows that might shroud the entrances 
to other passages. 

“It’s not the place, though,” Saxe declared; 
“for we are too high. This isn’t under the 
lake—and the cipher says, ‘The Bed of the 
Lake/ Come on, Jake.” 

He led the way toward a tunnel that yawned 
blackly on the south side of the chamber. This 






310 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


I 


sloped sharply downward, without a bend. 
Saxe, who possessed an instinct for location 
that was rarely at fault, had kept careful watch 
of every change in direction throughout the 
exploration. 

“Jake,” he said abruptly, after the straight 
course had been followed for a few rods, “if 
we keep on like this, we ought to hit the pas¬ 
sage where the pit is.” 

“I guess not,” the boatman objected. “We’ve 
been all over that-thar tunnel, and there ain’t 
no place where this-here tunnel comes into it. 
Now, what do ye say to that, Mr. Temple, eh?” 

“Not a blessed thing,” Saxe replied. “You’re 
right, of course, and yet—anyhow, I’d be will¬ 
ing to wager we’ll run within a rod of the other 
passage, at farthest.” 

“Ain’t no way of settlin’ that-thar idee o’ 
your’n,” Jake commented, with a cackle. 
“Guess as how I don’t pine to bet none.” 

The two went on in silence after this, mov¬ 
ing at a fair rate of speed, for the tunnel was 
only slightly encumbered with debris, but they 
did not permit haste to breed neglect of their 
purpose. Ever, as they went, they kept a care¬ 
ful lookout for aught that might by any pos- 




THE OTHER PASSAGE 


311 


sibility be a hiding-place for the miser’s gold. 
On either side, they looked, above, below— 
always in vain. Nowhere in the descent was 
there anything to suggest a receptacle for 
stores of precious metal. Suddenly, Saxe, 
who from his place in advance had been peer¬ 
ing before him anxiously, spoke in a voice of 
discouragement: 

“Jake, I believe we’re coming to the end 
of it.” 

The boatman quickened his steps, and 
reached the speaker’s side. The two halted. 
By the light of their lanterns, they saw a wall 
of stone, which barred further passage. Here 
was, indeed, the end of the tunnel. Jake 
nodded his head. 

“Yes,” he agreed, “it’s the end, sure enough.” 

“The floor is broken!” Saxe cried, of a sud¬ 
den. In an instant, he was surcharged with 
excitement. Jake, too, was thrilled. Together, 
they stared fixedly at the space that stretched 
level from their feet to the end of the tunnel. 
Wildest hope was welling in Saxe’s breast now. 
In the interstices of broken rock before him, 
imagination caught the yellow gleam of coins. 

For, at this point, the floor of the cavern 





312 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


showed some evidence of containing a natural 
opening similar to that in the other passage, at 
the place where Roy had seen Masters. But, 
where the other opening had been plainly 
visible, and, in fact, only partially filled by the 
pieces of stone within it, this was full to the 
top with rock fragments, neatly compacted— 
so neatly compacted, in truth, that it were easy 
to suspect the cunning of man in their precise 
adjustment, rather than the haphazard of 
nature. Gazing down on that orderly arrange¬ 
ment, the two men became certain that here, at 
last, was the spot chosen by the dead miser for 
the concealment of his store. Yet, for a little, 
each hesitated to begin the examination that 
would prove conclusive. They were half-fear¬ 
ful of putting conviction to the test of proof. 
Perhaps, too, the delight of anticipation held 
them in thrall. Saxe walked slowly along 
one side of the broken place, until he came to 
the end of the tunnel. There, something in the 
rocky wall caught his attention, and he 
regarded the terminal formation more criti¬ 
cally. Presently, he turned to Jake, and spoke 
with an air of triumph: 

“Pm sure I was right about this passage 




THE OTHER PASSAGE 


313 


running to the one where we found Roy. This 
is a continuation of the other. The opening 
in the floor here is the other half of the one 
into which Masters burrowed.” 

“Well, maybe so, maybe so,” Jake replied, 
in a voice that was plainly skeptical. “But jest 
how do ye make out all that-thar information ?” 

“By my bump of location, chiefly,” Saxe 
admitted. “But there’s corroborative evidence 
in the fact that the wall here is only a big 
boulder, along with a lot of smaller stones 
which block the passage.” 

“Well, so be,” the boatman commented 
placidly, “I don’t calc’late as how it makes a 
mighty sight o’ difference, one way or t’other. 
The p’int is, what in tarnation’s under here?” 

“Of course,” Saxe conceded. “Merely, it 
pleases my vanity to have been right.” He 
came to the old man’s side, and spoke with a 
quick sharpness in his tone: “And now, Jake, 
let’s find out if there’s anything here.” 

A few blows from the pickaxes loosened the 
closely packed pieces of stone. The two then 
began to cast out these to one side. They 
found the work simple enough, though fati¬ 
guing, for many of the rocks were of formid- 





314 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


able weight; but all were lying loosely, once the 
top layer had been removed. 

Saxe paused for a brief rest, after having 
with difficulty heaved a huge stone from the 
pit. 

“Mr. Abernethey never could have handled 
these,” he exclaimed. “The idea is absurd.” 

The boatman shook his head in emphatic 
denial. 

“Don’t you go worrying yourself none over 
that,” he counseled. “That-thar old man was 
a wonder in some ways. He was mighty 
powerful in his arms and chist. I seen him 
oncet lift a barrel o’ vinegar up by the chines 
into a wagon. I reckon he acquired consid’ble 
muscle from the pianner; he used to wal¬ 
lop it some tremendous, I tell you! Yep, he 
could h’ist out a heftier rock nor you or me.” 

This information quickened Saxe’s hope, 
and he toiled on with increased energy. The 
boatman showed an equal zeal. The pit grew 
deeper momently. Suddenly, Jake gave forth 
a great shout: 

“Jumpin’ Jehosaphat! We’ve struck it!” 
He straightened up, his face creased with 
innumerable wrinkles of happiness as he looked 




THE OTHER PASSAGE 


315 


across the pit at Saxe. 

The heir of Abernethey was beside the 
speaker within the second. As he bent for¬ 
ward, following the boatman’s gesture, he saw, 
in the open place left by the removal of the 
stone, a surface of oak. He understood that 
this must be the cover of a chest. An excla¬ 
mation of triumph broke from his lips. He 
made no effort to conceal his agitation. 

“Quick! Quick!” he cried. “Let’s get the 
other stones off.” He hurled from the pit with 
ease one which, a minute before, he could 
hardly have stirred. The splendid madness of 
success tripled strength. The old man beside 
him shared in the frenzy of toil. Within an 
incredibly short time, the oak covering was 
laid bare, and one corner of the chest stood 
exposed for its whole height. It was a great 
box of polished wood, brass-bound at the cor¬ 
ners. The cover was made fast by hasp and 
padlock—the whole simple, yet very strong 
and handsome. 

“Hurrah!” Jake cried, as he paused from 
the work to wipe his dripping forehead. 

“Hurrah!” Saxe answered, as he, too, 
rested. Then, he remained staring at the 





316 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


mighty box, wherein lay a fortune. He was 
too dazed by the final victory to think with 
coherence: he could but feel, with every atom 
of the energy in him. 

There was no further interchange between 
the two for some time. In silence, they again 
attacked the litter of rock that surrounded the 
chest. It was freed at last from the rampart 
that had shielded it. Jake put his shoulder 
against the side, and essayed an experimental 
push. With a groan from the strain, he 
abandoned the futile effort. There was vast 
contentment in his smile when he spoke: 

“I calc’late that-thar box will heft pretty 
consid’ble. It’s gold, all right.” 

“Yes, it’s the gold,” Saxe agreed, dreamily. 
He was thinking of Margaret now, and he 
smiled as he reflected on the fact that the 
miser’s legacy would fall to her and him 
together. A great longing to be alone assailed 
him. He turned impulsively to the boatman. 

“Hurry, and find the others, Jake!” he 
directed. 

“You bet ye!” the boatman responded, with 
alacrity. He was eager to bear the tidings. 




THE OTHER PASSAGE 317 

In a trice, he had scrambled out of the pit, 
seized his lantern, and set off briskly up the 
slope of the tunnel. 

Left alone, Saxe lighted a cigarette, smiling 
a little as he noted the manner in which his 
hands were trembling. Then, he seated him¬ 
self comfortably at the edge of the pit, and 
gazed raptly down on the treasure-chest. 




CHAPTER XXIII 


THE BLAST 

OY, after an hour of basking on the turf 
JL in the mellow warmth of the sunshine, 
felt himself his own man again, in spite of the 
dull pain in his head. Curiosity spurred him 
to action. He stretched himself luxuriously, 
then stood up, bent his right arm until the 
biceps was iron hard, to prove that the strength 
was still in him. Thereafter, he made his way 
into the cavern. When he had come into the 
big room, he found his lantern by the aid of 
matches, lighted it, and then paused, listening, 
uncertain as to which of the two passages he 
should follow. He could hear nothing, and 
presently decided on the left one, in which he 
had met his discomfiture. He traversed this 
until he reached the rift that gave communica¬ 
tion with the adjacent tunnel. Here, again, 
he halted, to give ear intently, and once again 
he could detect no sound. He decided that his 
friends must be somewhere in the passage on 
the right, and crossed into it, continuing the 
descent. He had not gone far when he heard 

318 


THE BLAST 


319 


the familiar roaring of Billy Walker’s voice, 
and knew that those whom he sought were 
ahead of him in the tunnel. He quickened his 
steps, and, much to his astonishment, found 
that the way now led upward, rather steeply. 
He reached a level, and heard the huge voice 
of the sage, followed by the mellow peal of 
David’s laughter. An instant later, he stood 
within the second chamber of the cavern, and 
called out to his friends, who were moving 
slowly along the side opposite him. 

Just as the two turned in surprise on recog¬ 
nizing the wounded man’s voice thus unexpect¬ 
edly, another noise caught their ears, and 
caused them to check the greetings on their 
lips. From the third passage came the clatter 
of feet running swiftly over the stone floor. 
As they gazed, the squat figure of Jake darted 
into the room, to halt, panting, as his eyes fell 
on the three men. 

“Hurrah!” the boatman gasped weakly, for 
the hasty pace from the pit below had winded 
him. He swung his lantern in a flourish of 
triumph. 

The glee of the man permitted only one pos¬ 
sible explanation. The three witnesses of that 




320 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


exultant entrance knew that the treasure had 
been found. Forthwith, they shared the mes¬ 
senger’s excitement. Jake told his story in few 
words. Within a half-minute of his coming, 
the four were hurrying down the third pas¬ 
sage, toward the spot where Saxe was waiting 
beside his chest of gold. He heard the noise 
of their approach, and, with a little start, 
aroused himself from the blissful dreaming 
into which he had fallen, wherein the gold of 
a woman’s hair had counted as of more worth 
than that locked in the brass-bound box at his 
feet. 

There ensued a period of general joy, though 
the specific causes of delight varied somewhat. 
Jake took keen pleasure in the fact that the 
one exciting incident of a humdrum life was 
ending in success. David was glad that the 
adventure on which he had embarked was 
achieved with victory to his friend’s hopes. 
Roy was savagely pleased over this discovery, 
which thus summarily put an end to Masters’ 
ambitions. Billy beheld with pride a final vin¬ 
dication of his exactitude in ratiocination. 
Saxe was happy in the thought that here was 
wealth to offer the one whom he loved. The 




THE BLAST 


321 


subtly sweet flavor of that happiness was in 
the knowledge that the way to it had been 
pointed by her whom his friends had called his 
logical enemy. His enemy—she, Margaret! 
His lips curved to a tender smile. 

Roy promptly assumed control of the opera¬ 
tions involved in the disposal of the treasure. 
He had been a practical miner, was skilled in 
ingenious devices for the moving of heavy 
weights. He appointed David, who had had 
similar experiences, his chief helper. Billy 
Walker seated himself as comfortably as he 
might on one of the fragments cast up from 
the pit, and prepared to offer such comments 
on future events as should suggest themselves 
to an orderly and logical mind. Jake proposed 
breaking open the lock, and then loading them¬ 
selves with as much gold as they could carry, 
for transportation to the launch. Roy refused 
acceptance of this simple method. 

“It must weight about a thousand pounds,” 
he said. “It’s too heavy for us to carry all the 
way to the shore alone. Bring that heaviest 
cable from the launch, Jake, and the pulley- 
tackle that's in the locker. Do that first. 
Perhaps Dave and I may be able to rig the 





322 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


pulley, and haul the chest up into the room 
above. Then, after you've brought the rope, 
go in the launch, and get half-a-dozen men 
from the Landing, to help. Bring along, too, 
four heavy poles. We’ll lash those on, to serve 
as handles in carrying the chest to the launch. 
Arrange for a lumber wagon at the Landing. 
Miss Thurston told me there’s a bank at the 
nearest town—Hadley—about three miles 
from the Landing. Eh?” Jake nodded as¬ 
sent. “The day’s young yet,” Roy concluded. 
“We’ll land Abernethey’s gold in the bank 
before night.” 

“Bank shets up at three o’clock,” the boat¬ 
man objected. 

“It’ll open again fast enough for what’s in 
this box,” Roy retorted. “You hurry up that 
cable, Jake.” 

“I’ll go with him,” David said. “It may 
need more than the cable length for the busi¬ 
ness, it’s quite a stretch up that slope.” Roy 
nodded assent, and the two hastened off. 

During their absence, Roy, with the assist¬ 
ance of Saxe, busied himself in arranging a 
smooth plane of stones in that end of the pit 
nearer the ascent, in such fashion as to afford 




THE BLAST 


323 


an easy slide for the chest. Soon, the cable 
was brought, and, while the others devoted 
themselves to the adjustment of this, Jake 
departed on his mission to the Landing. 

The workers in the tunnel found themselves 
confronted with serious difficulty when it came 
to passing the rope underneath the chest. It 
required the joint efforts of the four, though 
Billy Walker’s aid was not contributed with¬ 
out expostulation against the uselessness of 
this part of the labor. In the end, however, 
what by great exertion on the part of each and 
by the employment of the pickaxes as levers 
and bits of rock as supports, the task was 
achieved, and the rope was got in position 
under the chest. The remainder of the busi¬ 
ness was simple enough. In a short time, the 
box was firmly set within the hempen bands, 
knotted with seamanlike smartness by Roy, 
and the main length of the cable was free for 
adjustment to block and tackle. The extent 
of it, to Roy’s relief, proved ample for the pur¬ 
pose, and forthwith he and David carried the 
free end of it up the slope to the level of the 
chamber, in quest of some projection of rock 
to which the hook of the block might be made 




324 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


fast. Saxe and Billy remained below, beside 
the treasure-chest. 

Saxe lighted another cigarette, Billy had 
recourse to one of his customary black cigars, 
and the two smoked contentedly in silence. 
Saxe could hear indistinctly from time to time 
the movements of Roy and David, busy on the 
level above. And then, presently, his ears 
detected another sound. He listened—idly at 
first, soon with growing interest, finally with 
intent curiosity, which swiftly became excite¬ 
ment. The noise was faint, intermittent, yet 
persistent. In his earlier attention to it, Saxe 
found difficulty in locating the direction whence 
the sound issued, but, later on, he became sure 
that it had its origin somewhere in the other 
passage, beyond the barrier that divided the 
pit into two parts. The fact filled him with 
amazement. He knew the whereabouts of all 
in his own party. He could still hear Roy and 
David, active on the level above; Billy Walker 
was there present with him by the pit; Jake, 
ere this, was on his way to the Landing in the 
launch. It was impossible that the boatman 
should have disobeyed instructions, to return 
into the other passage for some mysterious 




THE BLAST 


325 


purpose of his own. But, since all the mem¬ 
bers of his party were thus accounted for, the 
explanation of that persistent sound there 
beyond the barrier became more difficult. It 
was certain that someone was occupied at the 
end of the other passage. Who, then, could 
that person be? It could not be Margaret, the 
only other who knew the entrance to the cav¬ 
ern. No, not the only other who knew—there 
was Masters! On the instant, as the thought 
came, Saxe knew that the enemy was again at 
work. 

The reason baffled the listener. What could 
the man of treacherous schemes be doing thus 
on the wrong side of the barrier? Saxe felt 
the puzzle too hard for his solving, and turned 
to Billy Walker, seeking the light of pure rea¬ 
son to clear away the mists of darkness with 
which the event was shrouded. The sage was 
nodding in somnolent relaxation, though still 
puffing his cigar. 

“Wake up, Billy!” Saxe called, softly. 

The dozing man straightened, and the small 
eyes opened on the disturber in an indignant 
stare. 

“I’m not asleep,” he remarked crossly, fol- 




326 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


lowing the universal habit of denial in such 
case. 

“Well, then, listen,” Saxe requested. “Don’t 
you hear that noise—like somebody pound¬ 
ing?” 

The sage gave ear obediently. It was evi¬ 
dent that, after a moment of attention, he per¬ 
ceived the noise, for his expression brightened 
to one of interest. His inference as to the 
significance of the occurrence was not left long 
in doubt. He turned presently to Saxe, with 
a wide grin on his heavy lips. 

“Our nimble and indefatigable friend is at 
his old tricks again,” he declared, in a whisper, 
without the least hesitation. “There remains 
for our deduction the precise variety of this 
latest deviltry,” Having thus delivered him¬ 
self, the oracle closed his eyes, and, while con¬ 
tinuing to listen, scowled portentously in token 
of absorbed ratiocination, which Saxe was at 
pains not to interrupt. It was perhaps two 
minutes before Billy Walker spoke again. 
When he did so, there was unaccustomed live¬ 
liness in the method of his delivery; he dis¬ 
played an agitation that first startled Saxe, 
then alarmed him. 







THE BLAST 


327 


“You said that Miss West mentioned an¬ 
other entrance to this cavern; Masters has 
probably availed himself of that. He has spied 
on us, and so has learned of our discovery of 
the treasure here. He has not dared to attack 
the lot of us openly. Very likely, he believes 
it will take us a considerable time to get out 
the chest. He may have come near enough to 
hear Roy and Dave up there, and from the 
silence between you and me he has supposed 
no one left here. He intends to get a hole 
through the barrier there, then to have the 
chest open, and to help himself to what he can 
while nobody’s looking. He may expect to 
have the whole night to work in. Of course, 
there’s a possibility he may mean just to get a 
loophole, and then pick us off one by one. 
That’s not likely, but he’s capable of anything.” 

“He’ll have something of a job to break 
through there,” Saxe objected. 

“Oh, dynamite is a quick worker,” the sage 
vouchsafed. 

“Dynamite!” Saxe repeated, aghast. 

“Yes, dynamite,” Billy stated again, with 
emphasis. “We know that he understands how 
to employ the explosive on occasion.” He 




328 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


stood up, seized his lantern, and started at a 
half-trot up the ascent. “Probably, he wouldn’t 
mind much if some of us got hurt.” He 
turned his head to shout raucously over his 
shoulder at Saxe, who below him stood staring 
in horrified amazement: “But he’ll be at a 
safe distance, and—so’ll I.” He ran on, wheez¬ 
ing grievously. Yet once again, he turned to 
roar toward his friend, in a voice of menace: 
“Run, you blithering idiot—for your life!” 

At that, the paralysis of astonishment fell 
from Saxe. He, in turn, caught up his lan¬ 
tern, and set off racing up the slope. He had 
gone scarcely a dozen steps when a report 
sounded behind him. It was not loud—indeed, 
it was so faint and muffled that, for a moment, 
Saxe doubted if, in truth, this could be the ex¬ 
plosion prophesied by Billy Walker. He halted 
and looked back. From his position, he could 
see with sufficient clearness to the barrier. In 
the dim light, he could distinguish no apparent 
change in the aspect. Then, of a sudden, his 
eyes fell on a rush of waters near the floor at 
the end of the passage. Now that the echoes 
of the detonation had passed, he heard the 
hissing of their flow. Even as he stared, 





THE BLAST 


329 


astounded, vaguely terrified, though without 
understanding of the catastrophe, the flood 
mounted visibly. In a flash of horror, Saxe 
realized the peril darting upon him. He 
whirled with a great cry and fled from the 
death that menaced. A swift glance over his 
shoulder as he reached the level, showed the 
boiling element hard on his heels. He shouted 
a second time, in futile warning to his friends. 
In the next moment, the light of his lantern 
revealed Billy Walker, running at a good pace 
just before him. 

“Masters has let in the lake!” Saxe cried 
frantically in his friend’s ear, as he came 
abreast. 

There was no need of the telling. Even as 
he spoke, the first waves lashed their feet. No 
time was given them to mend their speed. 
Before they could do more than realize the 
coming of the flood, it had reached to their 
waists, to their armpits. They had dropped 
the drenched lanterns—they were swimming 
blindly on the rushing torrent. But Billy, 
whose bulk kept him afloat easily, had put out 
a hand, so that he held fast to Saxe’s collar. 
Thus, they were borne onward together 





330 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


through the fearful blackness, tossed and torn 
by the coil of waters. That contact of each 
with the other was their single comfort. 

Of a sudden, they felt themselves twisted 
violently to one side. Then, for once, the 
majestic volume of Billy Walker’s voice served 
his necessity. The words bellowed in Saxe’s 
ear came softly, as from an infinite distance, 
yet clearly. 

“There’s no turn like that—we’re in the 
chamber. Make to the left—to the ledges, for 
your life! It’s our only chance.” 

By mercy of fate, the eddy helped them on 
their course. But for that, they could never 
have won through against the mighty urge of 
the current. The eddy sent them far to the 
left, and they fought on with all their strength, 
when the pull of it would have swung them 
back toward the vortex. Then as he felt that 
he could strive no more, Saxe felt his fingers 
touch on stone. While his hand rasped on the 
rock for hold, his feet found footing. In the 
next moment, he realized as never before the 
great strength of his companion. A violent 
thrust upward fairly shot him clear of the 
water. Before he had time to help himself, 




THE BLAST 


331 


Billy was again at his side, was dragging him 
still higher on the tumble of rocks. 

“To the top!” boomed the sage. “It may be 
high enough, and it may not. Anyhow, it’s 
the only chance. ,, And, presently, the two were 
on the summit of the pile of stone. Below 
them, the writhing waters clamored in rage. 
But the flood did not reach to them. Each 
second, Saxe expected to feel the swirl of it 
about his feet, leaping to engulf him; he was 
shuddering from dread of it. The quick horror 
of the event bred cowardice. Then, yet once 
again, he heard the huge voice of his friend. 

“We’re safe—safe!” 

But Saxe could not believe him. 

“How do you know?” he shouted. 

The sage had not heard the feebler tones 
through the din, but he guessed the question. 

“The water just reaches my foot. It has 
mounted no higher through a full minute.” 

“But it may yet.” 

This time, Billy heard. 

“Use your reason, the water at my foot 
marks the level of the lake. It can rise no 
higher. Cheer up, my boy.” 






CHAPTER XXIV 

ENTOMBED 


F OR a little, after he had realized the fact 
that the water could mount no higher, 
Saxe experienced such joy as must come to 
any normal person on escaping out of the peril 
of death. Ultimately, however, the first emo¬ 
tion wore itself out by its own intensity, and 
he was left free to think coherently again. The 
result was disastrous. There leaped in his con¬ 
sciousness the hideous truth that death was not 
avoided, only postponed. This refuge on the 
heap of rocks offered safety from drowning, 
from being crushed by the waves against the 
walls. It gave no more. On this tiny island, 
the two were marooned, with naught to expect 
save a slow, a frightful death. They had been 
borne hither on the first in-rush of the waters, 
and only the height of the cavern had saved 
them at that time. Now, there was no means 
by which they might make their way out from 
this prison. Beyond the chamber in which 
they were, the passage that led to the outdoors 
first dipped sharply. For a great way it must 

332 


ENTOMBED 


333 


be filled with the flood. Margaret West had 
spoken of another entrance somewhere, but she 
had told him nothing in detail. It was evident 
that this could not be in the chamber, or if 
there, it must be covered by the lake’s flow, 
incapable of affording egress. Had it place 
near the roof, the light of it must have shown 
clearly against the Stygian blackness. And 
there was no faintest gleam of light anywhere. 
Saxe’s eyes roved in fierce longing, but 
nowhere was there aught except the total dark¬ 
ness. For once, the sage had reasoned ill. 
There had been grisly mockery in his cry that 
they were safe—in this place where there could 
be no safety. This was in truth the safety of 
the tomb—a narrow perch whereon to attend 
death, to wait, supine, impotent, for a laggard 
dissolution by starvation. And Billy realized 
now the dread certainty of their plight; other¬ 
wise, he had not sat there in grim silence. 
Surely, Roy and David had the better part, 
since their engulfment had been swift. They 
were spared the lingering tortures of these sur¬ 
vivors, destined to a few dreadful hours. Then 
Saxe remembered the miser’s gold, and the 
hate of it welled high in his heart. Truly, there 





334 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


had been a curse on it! And the wretched man 
thought of Margaret most of all. But that 
which he thought of her should not be written. 
It was the supreme agony. 

Saxe had the courage of the strong man, but 
nature permits no man to lay down his life 
uselessly without revolt. Neither Saxe nor 
Billy was a coward, yet each was craven there 
in that eyrie above the flood, which imprisoned 
them in eternal night. The crime of Masters 
had brought wanton destruction upon them. 
There was no solace of justice in this doom. 
They were abandoned of hope. Their hearts 
were sick within them. 

Billy Walker spoke at last, and his voice was 
humbler than its wont, less sonorous, too. The 
first angry uproar of the waters was ended 
now, although they were rippling and swirling 
daintily still, as if in tender caresses of the 
rocks, which so recently they had smitten in 
fury. Above the gentle noise of the eddies, 
the sage’s voice, mild as it was comparatively, 
sounded clearly. Instantly, a cry came from 
the far side of the chamber. 

“Billy! Billy! You’re alive!” 

It was Roy’s voice, and another voice broke 




ENTOMBED 


335 


in on the words, shouting shrilly: 

“Billy! Thank God!” It was David’s voice. 

Billy roared so joyously that all other tones 
were lost for a time, but, at last, Roy and 
David caught Saxe’s higher pitch, and they 
were glad anew. Across the room, questions 
and answers were volleyed. It was made 
known that Roy and David, at the first rush of 
the lake upon them, had held to the projections 
of the rock where they had just made fast the 
tackle, and had climbed higher until they were 
safe above the flood. Now, they rested aloft 
on a tiny shelf of stone, only a little way 
beneath the roof, and they, even as Saxe and 
Billy, realized to the full the impossibility of 
escape from this sepulchre within the earth. 
And Roy lamented in characteristic fashion, 
after Saxe and Billy had explained the cause 
of the lake’s in-flow, which had been a mystery 
to the other two. 

“I’m sorry I couldn’t have had a chance at 
Masters before he went.” 

David’s voice, usually so kindly, was harsh 
as he spoke: 

“The skunk got us, after all,” he mourned. 
He added, with frank ferocity: “Damn him!” 




336 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


He knew, as did the others, that such speech 
concerning the dead was unseemly. Yet none 
rebuked him. For a moment, the warmth of 
wrath was comfort against the chill desolation 
of their case. 

Nevertheless, Billy Walker’s ruling passion 
was so strong that not even death might daunt 
it. The action of Masters required some 
explanation, to make all clear before the less- 
orderly minds of his friends. So, after a period 
of reflection, he expounded his understanding 
of the engineer’s part in the final act of their 
drama. The volume of his voice was such that 
he did not need to go beyond his usual conver¬ 
sational thundering to be heard distinctly by 
those on the opposite side of the chamber. 

“Masters, naturally, didn’t mean to do this 
thing,” he declared. “He wasn’t the type to 
commit suicide. He kept track of us all the 
time. How he did it doesn’t matter especially. 
Probably, he used another entrance to the 
cavern, which we don’t know. Anyhow, he 
learned what it was we had found down this 
way. I guess he spied on us, and heard you, 
Roy, and Dave, working on the tackle, and 
took it for granted we were all here together. 




ENTOMBED 


337 


He thought he could burrow through, and get 
at the gold himself while we were off after 
help. He meant to blow an opening just big 
enough to get through, I fancy. He failed to 
take into consideration the frailness of the roof 
that stood between the passage and the lake. 
He blew a hole in the bottom of the lake—and 
that was the beginning of our troubles, and the 
ending of his. He couldn’t find a refuge like 
ours in that other passage. Exit Masters—I 
regret our fate, but not his.” With this suc¬ 
cinct statement, the sage relapsed into silence, 
which continued until Roy relieved his over¬ 
wrought feelings by a denunciation against 
fate. 

“I’ve been on the edge of dying many a 
time,” he declared, bitterly; “but I was never 
up against this sort of thing before, and Fm 
free to say that I don’t like it. There’s some 
satisfaction in being done to death in a good 
fight, or in battling your best against any kind 
of odds. Of course, a man doesn’t exactly 
want to die, any time. But what puts me in 
the dumps is this particular variety of dying 
that we’re up against here. We’ve got to sit 
roosting on a shelf in the dark, like a heathen 





338 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


idol in a temple after it’s been buried in an 
earthquake—and we’ve just got to sit till we 
starve to death. I do hope I run across Mas¬ 
ters in the next world.” 

“Let us hope for your own sake that both 
you and Dave do not have your wishes granted 
concerning Masters in the next world/’ Billy 
exclaimed. The grim jest was not amusing in 
their situation. The three hearers shivered a 
little, and were silent. 

Afterward, the four gave themselves to se¬ 
rious meditation, as is fitting to men in the 
presence of death. On one occasion, Billy, in 
answer to a question from David, discoursed 
freely on the reasonableness of belief in a 
future life, and pleaded in defense of such 
faith with a lucid sincerity and completeness 
that first surprised, then comforted his audi¬ 
ence. Each, after his own fashion, believed in 
the continuance of life through death; none the 
less, each was loath to put off the garment of 
mortality. Billy Walker would fain have re¬ 
mained on earth for a larger accumulation of 
its wisdom, with which, as it seemed to him, he 
had only just begun. Saxe’s heart was near to 
breaking over the knowledge that he must go 




ENTOMBED 


339 


from Margaret into the unknown places, where 
she would not be. Roy felt the like desolation 
because of May. David, since he had no par¬ 
ticular thing to regret with superlative sadness, 
let his longing touch on many things, and grief 
was heavy upon him, because he must lose 
all—all! 

A single incident afforded the unhappy men 
diversion from their plight. After some dis¬ 
cussion, it was agreed that it would make the 
situation a trifle less dreary if the four of them 
were gathered in one place, instead of being 
divided by the width of the chamber. The 
shelf on which Roy and David had ensconced 
themselves was not of a size sufficient to ac¬ 
commodate the other two. For that matter, 
its dimensions were unduly restricted even for 
those already there. On the other hand, the 
top of the heap of rocks up which Saxe and 
Billy had climbed afforded ample room for all, 
besides giving better opportunity for the secur¬ 
ing of water to drink, since the massed stones 
were easy of ascent and descent. Unfortu¬ 
nately, there was a difficulty in the way of 
consummating the assembly of the four in the 
one place, due to the fact that David could not 




340 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


swim. It was arranged finally, however, that 
Billy Walker should swim across the chamber, 
being guided by the voices of Roy and David, 
and that then he and Roy should support the 
other across to the heap of stones, being guided 
in turn by the voice of Saxe, who would remain 
behind for that purpose. At once, when this 
arrangement had been made, Billy clambered 
down the rocks with many a sigh, until the 
water supported him. Then, he swam easily to 
the point from which Roy was calling. David 
let himself down into the water through the 
blackness without demur as his friends bade 
him, and very quickly he was carried across to 
the place indicated by the voice of Saxe. A 
minute later, the four friends were reunited on 
their microscopic island, and the fact yielded 
them a pleasure melancholy and fleeting, yet a 
pleasure, an alleviation, where no alleviation 
had seemed possible. 

Even in this fatal plight, the sage preserved 
his serenity, and from time to time startled his 
companions by his utterances, thus breaking in 
by ever so little on the torment of their spirits. 
They had just finished drinking as best they 
might from cupped hands dipped into the 





ENTOMBED 


341 


water at their feet, and David had spoken of 
being already hungry, when Billy laughed in 
his usual noisy outburst. 

“Exactly!” he exclaimed. “Always, when a 
man is confronted with absolute lack of provi¬ 
sions, he at once develops a ravenous appetite. 
He may have eaten five meals on the day of 
the wreck, and have gorged to repletion five 
minutes before the ship foundered. When he 
has become acquainted with the fact that he 
is adrift on the ocean in an open boat with only 
a few drops of water in the breaker, and ten 
wormy biscuits for six persons, he immediately 
begins to feel the gnawing pangs of ravenous 
hunger and deadly thirst. Naturally it will 
be so with us. David has already spoken. 
For my part, I confess that I, too, hear the 
generalissimo of the belly clamoring for rein¬ 
forcements, although I enjoyed a capital and 
capacious breakfast, and it’s not yet anywhere 
near the scheduled hour for luncheon on the 
earth above.” 

At that, there came a chorus of protests 
from the others, who had listened patiently 
enough hitherto: 




342 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


“Not time for luncheon!” Roy exclaimed, 
indignantly. “Man, you’re crazy.” 

“It’s well along in the night,” Saxe affirmed. 

“Or, maybe, toward the morning of next 
day.” David spoke with the emphasis of entire 
conviction. “We’ve been here close to twenty- 
four hours, already.” 

“Or even more,” Roy added, defiantly. 

Billy Walker chuckled—a great volume of 
sound, which sent multiplying echoes afar over 
the placid water that shut them off from life. 

“The exercise of reason convinces me that 
all of you are quite wrong,” the sage remarked, 
very genially. “There are certain well-known 
facts that compel me to believe you are wrong 
in your estimate of the time already elapsed 
since your incarceration by the flood. You 
are, perhaps, aware that in situations such as 
ours, the human mind errs outrageously in its 
calculations of time. Persons buried alive for 
a few hours invariably deem the time many 
days. One lives through great suffering; he 
believes that the time of his agony has been 
correspondingly great, though it may have 
been a matter of seconds, rather than of hours. 




ENTOMBED 


343 


This involuntary exaggeration seems a uni¬ 
versal rule. We can’t reasonably believe that 
we are constituted differently from other men. 
With the judgment clarified by reason, based 
on knowledge of allied facts, I am compelled 
to believe—in direct contradiction to my own 
feelings, as well as yours—that the time 
elapsed since the lake broke in on us hasn’t 
been more than—” Billy paused to reflect, 
running over the sequence of events, as the 
basis of computation. 

“Well, how long is it—measured by logic, 
and not by emotion?” Saxe demanded, some¬ 
what sulkily. 

“And, after all,” Billy remarked musingly, 
“time is only one of the categories of human 
thought, as Kant pointed out. To me, it seems 
eons since I was in the great out-of-doors— 
free, free to live. I judge by reasoning that 
we have been shut up here for nearly an 
hour—not quite.” 

Before Roy could voice the protest on his 
lips, a cry came from Saxe: 

“Hark! Hark!” 

The others held silent, marveling what this 
might mean. To their ears came the gentle 




344 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


lapping of the waves against the walls of the 
prison-house, the faint sighs of their own 
breathing—nothing else. After a long time, 
Saxe spoke again; and his voice was lifeless, 
where before it had been vibrant with feeling. 

“I must be going mad,” he said, simply. “I 
thought that I heard—someone—calling my 

a 


name. 




CHAPTER XXV 

TO THE CHIMNEY 


S THEY were lingering over the break- 



fast table, that same morning, Margaret 
turned to May with a smile. 

“And to think of them, off adventuring now, 
this very minute!” she exclaimed, pouting a 
little. “It was rather horrid of them to go at 
such an unearthly hour, when of course we 
weren’t up.” 

May nodded cheerfully. 

“Yes, I’d have enjoyed being in at the 
finish—if only Pd been invited.” 

“And I, too,” Margaret declared. “Anyhow, 
it’s my affair in a way, so I think I’m entitled 
to a spectator’s privilege, at least.” 

“It must be horribly exciting for you, with 
so much money involved,” May ventured, 
somewhat timidly. 

Margaret received the suggestion without 
sign of offense, and answered seriously: 

“I don’t wish Mr. Temple to fail. I don’t 
really need the money. Besides—” she broke 
off in confusion. 


345 


346 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


“And, besides, everything may come out 
right, after all, for everybody concerned,” May 
said slily. 

Margaret blushed to warmest rose, but she 
showed no displeasure at the innuendo. 

“Except the poor musicians,” she remarked; 
and then the two girls laughed joyously. As 
a matter of fact, each of them understood per¬ 
fectly the progress of the other’s love-affair, 
but their intimacy was too new for the most 
sacred confidences. Then, Margaret received 
an inspiration: 

“Why, we’ll go,” she exclaimed. Her ex¬ 
pression showed surprised triumph over the 
idea. 

“Where?” May questioned, at a loss. 

“To the island, of course,” came the brisk 
answer. “I’ll run and tell mother, and then 
we’ll paddle up there, and see everything that’s 
to be seen.” 

“Splendid!” May cried with enthusiasm. 
She was interested in the outcome of the 
treasure-hunt, but at this moment her sole 
thought was a thrilling one to the effect that 
by the plan she would see Roy the sooner. 

So, it came about that in mid-afternoon the 




TO THE CHIMNEY 


347 


two girls beached the canoe on the strip of 
sand at the island, and started toward the cav¬ 
ern. They were a little puzzled by the absence 
of the launch, and wondered if the fact were 
significant of good or ill fortune for the 
searchers. As they came to the top of the 
low bluff that rose from the shore, Margaret 
paused, and turned to look out over the lake. 

“No, the launch isn't in sight anywhere," 
she said. 

As she would have faced about to go on, 
a faint muffled sound came to her ears; the 
ground trembled very slightly; a movement of 
the lake’s surface caught her glance. A mo¬ 
ment before, the tiny waves, glistening prisms 
under the sunlight, had made a scene of quiet 
beauty. Now, in the twinkling of an eye, there 
had come a change—a change curious, inex¬ 
plicable, sinister. Out there in the lake, only 
a little way from the shore, the water, which 
had been so placid when they skimmed over 
it hardly a minute before, was now writhing 
in a horrible convulsion. Yet, no unwarned 
tempest racked the lake. The warm air was 
floating as languidly as hitherto. Nothing had 
been hurled into the water. There had been 




348 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


no crash of fallen meteor. Naught showed 
as the cause of this amazing contrast. Never¬ 
theless, under her eyes, the erstwhile tranquil 
bosom of the lake heaved in rage. Fifty yards 
from the shore, the water raced, lashing itself 
in wrath about the sunken center of its vortex. 
Margaret, thrilled, astounded, terrified, caught 
May by the arm, pulled her about. 

“See! See!” she cried, wildly. “What is 
it? What can it mean?” 

May, too, was stupefied by the spectacle. 
She stared at it in wordless confusion. She 
could make no guess as to the cause of this 
extraordinary event, nor tried to. She merely 
watched the mad carouse of the flood, and 
stood aghast. A great fear of this uncanny 
thing fell on the two girls, so that they clung 
together for protection, shuddering, their faces 
pallid. 

It seemed to the watchers as if that mys¬ 
terious turmoil in the waters of the lake 
continued for hours, though, as Billy Walker 
might have explained to them, it was doubtless 
no more than a matter of minutes. The com¬ 
motion spread over a broad area, but the girls 
had eyes only for the central place of the 






TO THE CHIMNEY 


349 


movement, the maelstrom near the shore, 
where the waters whirled in funnel shape, 
with the swaying hollow pointing the down¬ 
ward rush. An engineer would have known 
at first glance the reason for this churning of 
the lake, would have understood that some 
sudden vent below had set the tide racing to 
new liberty. But the girls had no such learning 
in physics. They could only look on in fasci¬ 
nated wonder, in awe. Haphazard, fantastic 
ideas darted in their brains, vague guesses 
concerning sea-serpents, earthquakes, tidal 
waves, waterspouts, which their own native 
sense rejected. Throughout the experience, 
neither was able to contrive any explanation 
of the extraordinary event. They were as 
confounded at the end as at the beginning. 

Little by little, the waters of the lake ran 
slowly, and more slowly, in the path set them 
by the whorl. At last, there was scarcely a 
ripple to mark the spot where the cauldron 
had seethed hottest. Once again, there was 
nothing to see save the light tossing of the 
waves, dancing to the rhythm of the breeze 
toward the kisses of the sun. Margaret and 
May set their faces once more toward the 





350 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


cavern. 

They were garrulous over the mystery— 
hardly concerned with the treasure-quest, for 
the moment. But the new interest had not 
lessened the desire of their hearts, and they 
quickened their steps, each at thought of the 
man she loved, now so near at hand. So they 
came soon to the cliff in the ravine, where 
was the entrance to the cave. Margaret had 
brought her torch, which Jake had recharged 
for her the night before from his own supplies. 
She pressed the button, pushed aside the con¬ 
cealing branches, and made her way within 
the opening, followed closely by May, who 
experienced a pleasurable excitement as she 
thus penetrated into the earth. The two came 
duly to the chamber, which they crossed to 
where the black openings into the tunnels 
showed. Now, May’s heart beat faster, as she 
found herself deep in this grim abode of darkr 
ness, where the limited radiance of the torch 
served but to make more grotesquely menacing 
the shadowy unknown on every side. Yet, she 
would not confess the fear that clutched at 
her—only, held fast to Margaret’s arm, and 
chatted with unusual volubility, while a little 




TO THE CHIMNEY 


351 


quaver crept in her voice. They entered the 
passage on the right, which Margaret had 
traversed with Saxe, and went forward with 
what speed they might over the rocks that 
cumbered the floor. They had descended for 
some distance, but had not yet reached the rift 
that led across into the other tunnel, when 
Margaret halted abruptly, with a gasp of 
amazement. 

“It’s—it’s water!” she cried, dumfounded. 
She stood staring with dilated eyes, her lips 
parted, stupefied with astonishment, pointing 
with her free hand to the space before her, 
where the glow of the torch shone on a softly 
rippling level of water, which filled the tunnel 
like the contents of a well seen down the slope. 

May, who had held her eyes fixed on the 
floor to save herself from stumbling, looked 
forward at the exclamation, and perceived the 
water. But the sight was not especially im¬ 
pressive to her. She supposed that here was 
merely a well in the path. She did not under¬ 
stand her friend's dismay. 

“What is it?” she asked, with no great 
interest. She wondered in which direction 
they would turn to pass by the pool. 




352 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


Margaret, however, was thinking with des¬ 
perate energy. Her mind was naturally keen, 
and it had enjoyed advantages of careful 
training. She began, at last, to suspect some¬ 
thing as to the true significance of the catas¬ 
trophe in the lake, which hitherto had baffled 
comprehension. The presence of water in the 
cavern, where before had been no water, 
stunned her at first; then, as she apprehended 
vaguely the meaning of it, it appalled. There 
where the tunnel was steep, the water filled it 
completely. She went forward until the water 
was at her very feet, and stared down at it, 
her face colorless, her pulse bounding wildly, 
in the grip of cold horror. Finally, she began 
stammering affrightedly: 

“The lake—the water out there—it’s broken 
into the cavern—they’re drowned—drowned 
—Saxe!” Her voice rose to a wail on the 
last word. 

Margaret’s terror, rather than her words, 
had filled the other girl with dismay at the first. 
But “drowned” gave form to fear. May, in 
turn, was stricken with horror. 

“Drowned?” she repeated, in a whisper. 
“Roy?” Her memory went back to the scene 




TO THE CHIMNEY 


353 


she had just witnessed on the lake. The utter¬ 
ance of Margaret, broken, uncomprehended, 
became hideously plain. It meant that the lake 
had somehow entered this cavern, which ran 
beneath the waters. In that case, the men 
down within the earth there must have been 
overwhelmed by the in-pouring flood. But, 
even as conviction came, her spirit refused 
credence to the truth. She cried aloud in 
revolt: 

“No, no! No, I tell you! They are safe— 
safe!” 

Margaret gave no heed to the folly of the 
words—the confidence in them spurred her to 
endeavor. 

“Come!” she exclaimed. She whirled, and 
ran swiftly over the rubble, back the way they 
had come. Her thoughts were chaotic, but 
through them ran refusal to believe the worst. 
He—they—Saxe must have received warn¬ 
ing—must be safe, somewhere, somehow— 
must be—must be! May, hard on Margaret’s 
heels, was sore pressed to keep the pace over 
the jumble of fragments. 

When they had come to the great chamber, 
Margaret, without pause, turned into the pass- 






354 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


age on the left. With the same speed, she 
hurried along this, panting now. May ran just 
behind. Then, finally, the horror, against 
which Margaret had hoped, burst full on her. 
She halted, reeling, a shriek of despair waver¬ 
ing on her palsied lips. A few feet away, down 
the tunnel’s slope, lay the level black of water, 
shining gently under the beams of the torch, 
serene, implacable. May, too, saw and under¬ 
stood, and rested frozen in dumb anguish over 
this ending of all things. 

There are certain calamities so unexpected, 
so monstrous, that the mind refuses to accept 
them as fact at first announcement, no matter 
what the proof. It was so here. The two 
girls—freshly stirring to the most subtle and 
the most potent of human emotions, love, come 
forth in the morning with gladness of heart to 
meet the men of their choice, gaily eager to 
learn of an adventure—were now, in a flash, 
confronted with an inconceivable disaster. 
They would not accept the fact—they could 
not. There was, there must be, some hideous 
mistake, soon to be cleared away. Despite all 
evidence, those they loved had not been done 
to death, down there within the abysses of the 




TO THE CHIMNEY 


355 


earth. Somewhere, somehow, they had es¬ 
caped. They would come forth presently, and 
then there would be only laughter, where now 
was terror. 

It was this refusal to believe that gave 
Margaret inspiration to action at last. Of a 
sudden, she bethought herself of that other 
entrance to the cavern, concerning which she 
had spoken to Saxe. On the instant, she again 
turned,, and fled back through the tunnel with¬ 
out a word. May, not understanding, yet still 
defiant of fate, followed. The time was mar¬ 
velously short until they were again in the 
ravine outside the cavern. But Margaret did 
not pause here—she did not even trouble to 
cut off the current of her torch, of which the 
glow showed wanly against the sunlight, as 
she went running swiftly through the ravine, 
and out on the little plateau that lay at its 
mouth. There, she hesitated, but only for a 
second, her eyes sweeping the undulations of 
the island while memory struggled for assur¬ 
ance. Certainty flashed on her, and again she 
leaped forward, May always close beside in 
the flight. Across the plateau Margaret sped, 
into a gully that ran toward the shore, up a 





356 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


stiff slope to the crest of a ridge, which was 
part of the bluff overlooking the lake. The 
summit was boulder-strewn, a medley of 
masses lying topsy-turvy. She threaded a 
way among the rocks, perforce more slowly, 
yet still with feverish haste. At last, she 
halted, with a great cry of joy. 

“It is here!” she said softly. There was a 
note of reverent thankfulness in her voice. 

May looked, wondering, and saw a small 
hole amid the rocks at her feet. It was less 
than a yard in length, and in breadth much 
narrower. She perceived that it was not quite 
vertical, though almost. A short way below 
the surface, its course was hidden in blackness. 

Margaret wasted not a moment. 

“They’re in there, I know,” she explained, 
succinctly, to May. “I’m going to show them 
the way out.” 

As a matter of fact, the girl knew nothing 
as to the fact she stated so authoritatively. 
She had no least idea as to that part of the 
cavern on which the chimney gave. Her cousin 
had pointed it out, and had told her that by it 
he first made his way within. Beyond that, 
she knew nothing whatever. Hope dictated 





TO THE CHIMNEY 


357 


her claim to knowledge. She still denied any 
credence to the final catastrophe. Here, now, 
lay the sole avenue of escape. So she an¬ 
nounced it with positiveness that admitted no 
question. Thus only might courage be held. 
May, for her part, eager to believe, received 
the declaration without doubt. Moreover, Roy 
had discoursed to her at length concerning the 
curious operations of the sixth sense. With 
that receptivity characteristic of the fond 
woman, she had accepted his pronouncements 
without hesitation, glad to believe whatsoever 
he believed. Besides, she had great faith in 
feminine intuition—and what was intuition, if 
not that self-same psychic thing over which 
her lover rhapsodized? Now, instinct cried 
that the man she loved was safe, and she 
believed. 

“Shall I go, too?” she asked. 

Margaret shook her head. She turned to 
scan the lake. 

“No,” she said; “you couldn't help—and it 
may be bad climbing. But Fm used to that. 
You keep watch for Jake and the launch. He 
may be needed later on.” With that as the last 
word, she let herself down into the chimney 




358 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


of the rocks. May from above gazed with 
wide eyes until the form of her friend disap¬ 
peared into the blackness below. Then, she 
turned to look out over the lake, in anxious 
search for the coming of the launch. Standing 
alone there, with the dreadful mystery hidden 
within the earth under her feet, she felt a quick 
reaction of doubt, which welled swiftly to the 
torture of despair. The strength flowed from 
her. She sank to her knees, and stared down 
into the dark of the chasm with dull, unseeing 
eyes—rested motionless in the apathy of 
supreme misery. 






CHAPTER XXVI 

IN THE DARK 

M ARGARET, as she let herself down into 
the chimney, held the torch so as to 
show her surroundings. She still clung to the 
rock above with her right hand, while the left 
was occupied by the torch. As yet, she had 
found no footing. The light revealed that this 
opening through the ridge was the result of 
the lodging of one huge block of stone, which 
had left the angle between it and the other 
rock empty. A clutter of fragments formed 
the third side of a triangle, which extended 
downward steeply as far as she could see. A 
feeling of sick apprehension swept over her 
when she perceived the manner in which some 
of the stones hung, seemingly poised to a fall. 
Then, in the next instant, she recalled the rea¬ 
son of her presence there, and conquered dread 
in the need of action. 

She saw a jutting bit of rock a few inches 
below her feet. She let herself down to the 
extreme limit of reach, and found herself just 
able to touch the support with a toe. She 

359 



360 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


released her hand-hold, and thus remained, 
half-standing, half-lying in the hole. She 
searched out other points to which her fingers 
might cling, at the height of her breast. 
Clenching these, she bent her knees, and finally 
came to a crouching posture on the tiny ledge 
that had been under her feet. In the like 
tedious, slow fashion, she continued the de¬ 
scent, for a distance of perhaps twenty feet, 
without mishap, though in constant danger 
of a fall. But, at this point, new difficulties 
threatened. Though she took long to search, 
she could find nothing to afford a foothold, 
even the tiniest. To make the matter worse, 
just here the smoothness of the walls was such 
that her hands could secure only a doubtful 
grip. She studied the situation painstakingly 
by means of the torch, making sure that no¬ 
where a projection of the stone escaped her 
observation. She was distraught by this ill 
fortune, which threatened the ruin of her 
hopes. Finally, however, she perceived by the 
light of the torch that, two yards or more 
below the point to which her feet reached, the 
chimney bent a little, toward the horizontal. 
At the sight, Margaret’s courage sprang to 




IN THE DARK 


361 




new life. Without a second of delay in which 
fear might grow, she loosed her hold, and let 
herself slip downward. 

The steepness of the chimney was so great 
that her movement was rather a fall than a 
slide. In the very second of the start, she felt 
the violent impact of her feet against the stone 
as they struck the bend. Nor was the change 
of direction sufficient to overcome the impetus 
of the drop, as she had hoped. Her body shot 
onward down the rough slope. She caught at 
the walls with her fingers, but, though the 
ragged surface tore the skin from her flesh, 
she could get no clutch strong enough to stay 
the flight. The torch had slipped from her 
grasp without her even being aware of its loss 
at the time. In the darkness, she went hurtling 
on. Her spirit broke in those seconds of 
dreadfulness. She felt that death waited at 
the end of the fall. Saxe’s name was on her 
lips when she crashed into pause. 

For a long time she lay without any move¬ 
ment, her sole consciousness a dazed suffering 
from bruised flesh and aching bones. Her 
senses all but failed, yet did not quite. A 
vague, incoherent necessity beat upon Her 






362 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


brain, though she could by no means under¬ 
stand what that need might be. Her one 
clear realization was of pain—pain pervasive, 
deadly. But, little by little, the torment of 
racked nerves lessened. It seemed to her ages 
after that hideous drop through the black 
when, at last, her mind grew active again. On 
the instant, she was a creature transformed. 
She contrived with infinite pains to sit erect, 
alert to know the truth as to her own condi¬ 
tion— for she still had work to do. To her 
relief, she found that, despite the complaining 
of her beaten body, she had been spared broken 
bones or other hurt that might disable. There 
was misery in each movement, but she could 
move, and with that she was content, grateful 
to providence that her plight was no worse. 
She looked back, and saw, a long way off, a 
feeble, pallid light, which came, she made cer¬ 
tain, from the foot of the shaft at the bend. 
Now, from its remoteness, she was able to 
make some estimate of the distance through 
which she had sped beyond it, and she was 
fain to wonder that she should be indeed alive. 

It was easy to determine that she was lying 
on a shelf of rock, which was almost level. 




IN THE DARK 


363 


She felt about this, and even ventured to crawl 
a short way. Then, her groping hand struck 
on emptiness, and, shuddering, she drew back 
from the invisible void. Nevertheless, weak¬ 
ness gave ground to desire. She must press 
onward, somehow, to the rescue. At once, she 
b^gan creeping forward, bearing to the right, 
on which side she felt the sheer wall of a cliff. 
She judged that, by proceeding thus, she would 
be safe from the gulf as far as the ledge might 
run. She had gone perhaps twenty yards in 
this tortoise manner, when a sudden thought 
halted her in anger against the folly of having 
neglected the simplest expedient. Saxe—the 
others—might be about anywhere, and she had 
not called to them! Forthwith, she gathered 
her strength—such as was left to her—and 
sent out a cry, a pitiful, passionate cry. 

“Saxe! Saxe!” 

She listened in breathless suspense . . . . 
there came no answer. 

Then, after a time, she called again; and 
again there came no answer, yet she refused 
to lose hold on faith. She sought comfort in 
the thought that she was still too far from him 
for her voice to carry. So, she set forward 





364 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


anew on hands and knees, her fingers groping 
over the rock on which she crawled, to make 
sure that the way was safe for her passing. 
Physical suffering rent her, but an indom¬ 
itable spirit spurred the jaded body. By sheer 
strength of will, she persisted in that pitiful 
progress through minute after minute, until at 
last she deemed the distance traversed enough 
to warrant a second calling into the dark: 

“Saxe! Saxe!” sounded the repetition of 
her summons. Followed an instant of pro- 
foundest silence, as the last echoes of the shrill 
cry died. 

Then, of a sudden, the air was shattered 
with clamors. A din of shouts roared in her 
ears, multiplied by the reverberations of the 
cavern, chaotic, deafening. Out of all the 
cacophony, her strained sense caught a tone 
that thrilled the heart to rapture. Her voice 
rose in a scream—hysterical, triumphant—in 
answer. 

“Saxe! Saxe!” And then a weary mur¬ 
mur: “Oh, thank God!” 

A little silence fell. It was broken by her 
own name, spoken in his voice. 

“Margaret!” 




IN THE DARK 


365 


“Yes, Saxe/’ she answered, simply. It was 
evident that the distance between them was 
not very great. She wondered that her calling 
should have remained unheard in the earlier 
effort. It occurred to her that perhaps in the 
first attempt she had not really cried out with 
all her might—as was, indeed, the case. 

“You—you, Margaret—you came for us!” 

“Yes.” There was no need to explain that 
she had come for him, for him alone. Oh, she 
would be very glad that the others should win 
to life—but she had come for him, for him 
only. “You are safe?” she added. 

“Yes.” The others were silent, giving the 
dialogue to the girl and Saxe, for they under¬ 
stood how it was between the two. “You came 
by the other entrance, of which you told me?” 

“Yes—through the chimney, on the ridge by 
the shore. May is there, watching and waiting 
for Jake to come. We shall need help to get 
out. It is hard to climb. I slipped coming 
down.” 

“You are hurt!” The lover’s voice was 
harsh with fear. 

But Margaret laughed blithely. What mat¬ 
ter a few bruises now ? 





366 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


“It shook me up a bit,” she confessed. “But 
I’m all right. The worst of it was that I lost 
my torch. Can you come to me here? I know 
how to find the way back in the dark.” 

Billy Walker deemed it time that he should 
assume direction of the affair. 

“Do you know how high above the water 
you are there, Miss West?” he demanded. The 
gruff voice was very gentle, for gratitude to 
this girl burned hot in him, as in the others. 
She had brought the gift of life to dead men. 

“No,” Margaret answered. 

“You are on a ledge, of course,” the sage 
continued. “Please get to the edge of it, and 
reach down with your hand, and find if you 
can touch the water.” 

There was a little delay before the reply 
came. 

“Yes.” 

“Be careful!” The sharp admonition was 
from Saxe. 

“It’s almost level with the shelf I’m on,” the 
girl continued. 

“Good!” Billy’s tone was full of satisfac¬ 
tion. “That makes it very simple. We shall 
swim across to you, and then you will guide 




IN THE DARK 


367 


us from these Plutonian shades back to the 
upper world/’ He turned toward the com¬ 
panions whom he could not see, and addressed 
them with crisp authority. “You will go first, 
Saxe. Her voice will guide you—she’s directly 
across the chamber from us. Be ready after¬ 
ward to help us with David when we get there. 
We shall allow you ample time to—er—climb 
out before we start to tote Dave. Go ahead.” 

“I’m off,” Saxe answered, promptly. Then, 
he called to Margaret, “Talk a bit, please, 
while I’m in the water, so that I’ll know the 
direction. I’m just starting.” 

There was a slight splash as Saxe lowered 
his body into the water, and the soft swish 
from his strokes as he swam away. 

“Here, Saxe! Here I am! This way!” The 
girl continued the calls with joy in her tones. 
Then, a minute later, she heard him speak her 
name softly, at her feet. In another instant, 
he was beside her on the ledge—she was in his 
arms, their lips met. He had no thought of 
his dripping garments, nor had she. They had 
no knowledge of anything save heaven. 

Billy Walker’s voice went thundering across 
the cavern: 







368 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


“Are you there, Saxe ?” 

There was no reply. The sage chuckled 
aloud. 

“The exercise of reason teaches me,” he 
explained in a voluminous whisper, “that our 
dear young friend is not drowned—oh, no! As 
a matter of fact, at this moment, he has already 
got clear of the water, and doesn’t know where 
he is, but is happier than he ever was before 
in his life. When he awakes from the trance, 
he will address us.” 

So, in truth, it came to pass. Presently, the 
call came from Saxe, and the progress of the 
three across the cavern was safely accom¬ 
plished. Arrived, they pressed about the girl, 
who was standing, supported by her lover’s 
arm, and mightily embarrassed by the fervor 
of their gratitude for the boon of life bestowed 
on them by her intrepidity and resource. 
Finally, the five set forth along the ledge, fol¬ 
lowing it as Margaret had come, by groping 
on the sheer wall from which it jutted. And, 
now, the girl no longer went with painful slow¬ 
ness on hands and knees, but walked bravely, 
upheld by the lover at her side. So, at last, 
they came to the spot where Margaret’s fall 




IN THE DARK 


369 


had ended. To their left, seemingly a great 
way off, and high above them, showed the 
pallid gleam from the bend of the chimney— 
blessed harbinger of God’s light above. 

Billy Walker surveyed the dim vista of 
ascent with extreme disfavor. 

“Jake must bring ladders,” he declared. 
“Luckily, he’s to fetch along help—a whole 
crew for the rescue work. Oh, yes, I’ll wait— 
I don’t mind waiting. The water was warm, 
and the cavern’s warm, and, anyhow, wet 
clothes don’t bother—if one doesn’t think of 
them. But I wish I had a dry cigar and a 
match.” 

Roy thrust himself forward resolutely. 

“Nonsense!” he exclaimed. “I’ll climb up in 
a jiffy.” He had pulled off his shoes before 
starting for the first swim with David across 
the chamber, and now stood up in his stock¬ 
inged feet. “I’m fond of cliff-climbing. The 
only trouble with this is, it’ll prove too easy.” 
Without more ado, he scrambled upward 
through the darkness. The others waited anx¬ 
iously, and breathed a sigh of relief when they 
saw his form at last silhouetted against the 
pale light at the bend. His voice came to them 




370 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


muffled. 

“The rest will be quicker, I can see, now.” 
Forthwith, he vanished. 

It was May on the solid earth above who 
heard him, and the happiness of it made her 
almost fainting. But she held herself sternly, 
and even managed a quavering call of his 
name—for which, when he heard, Roy climbed 
the faster, and soon these two were in each 
other’s arms, glad beyond measure of gladness. 
The girl was in terror over the blood-stained 
bandage about her lover’s head, and cried when 
she learned of the treacherous shot that had 
wounded him. She cried again, with content, 
that it had been no worse. Most of all, she 
cried for the exquisite bliss of his being alive 
and holding her in his arms—ruining the 
daintiest of summer frocks with his sodden, 
rock-stained clothes. 

The strangeness of the spectacle thus pre¬ 
sented by the ardent pair arrested the attention 
of Jake and his crew, who chanced just then 
to arrive in the launch. So great became the 
boatman’s curiosity that he resolved to investi¬ 
gate before marching his company into the 
cavern. To this fact, and not to any alertness 





IN THE DARK 


371 


on the part of the lovers in looking out for the 
coming of the launch, was due the quickness 
with which measures of relief were undertaken 
for those left in the depths. Ropes were hur¬ 
ried to the scene; a lantern was lowered. It 
was then discovered that the descent was not 
so very difficult. With the way lighted, and a 
rope by which to cling, the various members 
of the party contrived to climb safely to the 
mouth of the chimney. Margaret went first, 
with Saxe behind to aid as best he might. 
David Thwing was next, and last of all, by his 
own choice, Billy Walker. 

“If I go last,” he explained to David, “I’m 
saved the discomfort of feeling that I ought 
to be hurrying to get out of somebody’s way.” 

After the rescue had been effected, a watch 
made up from men trusted by the boatman was 
set over the chimney, at Roy’s suggestion. 
Then, the four young men, with the two girls, 
entered the launch to be taken to the cottage, 
for a change of clothing and luncheon. Billy 
chuckled contentedly, while the other men ap¬ 
peared sheepish, when it was learned that noon 
remained still an hour distant. 

“But the chances are poor of ever getting 




372 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


that gold, after all,” Saxe said ruefully, when 
they were under weigh. 

Roy uttered an indignant exclamation. 

“Nothing of the sort!” he declared. “David 
and I had the tackle fastened, all right, with 
a knot on the rope to save it from slipping 
through the block. And we had it hauled 
tight, too.” He laughed amusedly. “Why, do 
you know? That treasure-chest has started up 
the slope already! I’ll bet what you like the 
shrinking of the rope has brought it out of the 
pit. A good gang of men can get that chest 
out in less than a half-day.” He spoke with 
the sureness of one having knowledge drawn 
from experience. That he was right the issue 
proved, for the gold was taken out very easily, 
and stored safely in the bank before nightfall. 

That evening in the music-room, Saxe sat 
playing the miser’s song of gold. Still drum¬ 
ming the harsh phrases, he turned, and spoke 
to his friends with a whimsical smile. 

“You know, I rather apologized to you for 
asking your help in this affair, because it didn’t 
offer anything much in the way of real adven¬ 
ture, but it did turn out a bit lively after all!” 




IN THE DARK 


373 


Came a chorus of laughing assents. 

“We owe Masters gratitude for some 
thrills,” David said cheerfully. “And anyhow, 
he’s got his deserts.” 

Roy was on the point of saying something 
candid anent the dead engineer. But his eyes 
met those of May Thurston, and he forgot 
hate, and remembered only love. 

Saxe spoke again presently, with a medita¬ 
tive air, though Margaret thought that she 
could detect a twinkle deep in the gray eyes. 

“Roy was right in his idea about the solution 
of the mystery coming by psychic impression. 
It did. The curious part is that the one to 
receive the subtle suggestion from the world 
beyond was the last person to be suspected of 
anything of the kind—a kind so contrary to 
pure reason.” 

“What’s that?” Billy Walker demanded. 

“Why, about the cipher,” Saxe explained, 
placidly. “Billy, tell us the truth. Search 
your memory well. Didn’t you first have the 
idea that the music had something to do with 
the hiding-place of the gold, and then didn’t 
you dig out the reasons to justify that idea— 
after you had it?” 




374 


THE LAKE MYSTERY 


“Of all the preposterous—” the sage began 
stormily. 

But Saxe interrupted ruthlessly: 

“Carefully! Search your memory, Billy. 
Didn’t the idea come first, the reasons after¬ 
ward? Aren’t you psychically sensitive, Billy 
Walker ? Confess!” 

“Psychic—I!” the seer boomed, outraged. 
Then, his brow became furrowed with thought. 
His expression changed to one of dismay. 
Little by little, this wore away, a dawning 
satisfaction grew in its stead. Finally, he 
spoke aloud to himself, unconsciously. “Psy¬ 
chic—I? Well, well!” And Billy Walker 
smiled. 

Saxe smiled in answer to the smile that was 
in Margaret’s eyes as her glance met his. Then 
he turned once again to the piano. The rhythm 
of the miser’s song of gold rang out. But now, 
the player touched the harsh measures with a 
certain grateful gentleness. In and over and 
about the grim chords, he wove daintier har¬ 
monies, lingered often for cadences of passion, 
wrought a counterpoint of basic love, set above 
all an exquisite melody, the unison of two 
hearts. The improvisation welled to a chorale 




IN THE DARK 


375 


of magnificent praise for that lonely and un¬ 
happy man to whose morbid intrigue the player 
owed not merely a fortune, but something 
infinitely more—the meeting and the winning 
of the woman he loved. 

“It's the only tune I ever cared for,” quoth 
Billy Walker, complacently. 





























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